Kentucky School Shooter Has Appealed

• {Kentucky}...Public defender Tim Arnold, who represents Michael Adam Carneal, has filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to overturn a judge's decision that Carneal waited too long to try and withdraw his guilty plea to killing three classmates and wounding five in 1997. Carneal is serving life in prison with a chance at parole after 25 years. Carneal pleaded guilty in 1998 to attacking classmates at Heath High School near Paducah a year earlier. Carneal tried to withdraw his guilty plea in 2004, two years after the deadline to do so. Arnold said Carneal was only competent in 2004 and has been in and out of touch with reality since. He says U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell didn't apply the correct legal standard when evaluating Carneal's competency in his ruling in July. Carneal killed Kayce Steger, Nicole Hadley and Jessica James when he opened fire on a student prayer circle that met before classes on December 1, 1997.