PORTLAND — Kip Kinkel has lost another bid to reduce the 111-year sentence he received for the 1998 mass shooting at Springfield’s Thurston High School.
The Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday affirmed a Marion County judge’s ruling that went against Kinkel in 2013. Kinkel’s attorney has argued that the prison term amounts to a life sentence that violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment — in part, because Kinkel was 15 years old at the time.
The Appeals Court opinion states that Kinkel previously appealed his sentence as cruel and unusual, and Oregon law prohibits him from using the same argument in another appeal.
Kinkel murdered his parents and then opened fire at Thurston High. Two students were killed and more than two dozen others were hurt.
