Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine is back-stepping after his office said on Monday that the panel that investigated the Virginia Tech massacre and published the official report on the tragedy will not reconvene, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
According to a Washington Post report, more than 60 family members and survivors wrote a letter that asked the governor to reopen the investigation into the shooting after Virginia Tech officials located the mental health records of the shooter, Seung Hui Cho. But Kaine's lawyer, Mark Rubin, said in an E-mail to the petitioners on Monday that while factual corrections can be made to the panel's official report, reconvening the panel is doubtful.
"While we would not rule out inviting willing members of the panel to review proposed revisions to the report, we are sensitive that there are families who expressly do not want to reconvene the panel," Rubin wrote. "Our hope is that the current process for revisions will satisfy the need for a thorough report without upsetting families like your own any further."
Outcry over Rubin's E-mail forced Kaine to issue an apology on Tuesday. Kaine spokeswoman Lynda Tran told the Times-Dispatch that the governor wanted to apologize to the victims' families and that he was concerned that getting the all-volunteer panel back together to reconvene would be difficult.
But, Tran told the Times-Dispatch, "getting a factual narrative of what happened that day is a top priority."
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