By Carrie Pond
Paducah, KY – High school shooter Michael Carneal is asking a federal judge to throw out his conviction based on mental health grounds. Carneal filed the petition today in Paducah's U.S. District Court. Carneal claims doctors did not diagnose the full extent of his mental illness when he entered an Alford plea for the 1997 Heath High School shootings. Carneal's attorney, public defender David Harshaw, says Carneal should have been diagnosed as insane at the time of the shootings. That finding would render his plea and sentence unconstitutional.