Amy Bishop, Ex-Univ. of Alabama professor who pleaded guilty to shooting six people, heads to court

[struggle4progress]

September 24, 2012 10:10 AM

... Bishop avoided a possible death sentence when she pleaded guilty earlier this month to killing three people and wounding three others. Now, she faces life in prison. She had earlier pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

But a trial is still required under Alabama law because Bishop admitted to a capital charge of murder. So lawyers will select a jury and Circuit Judge Alan Mann will hold a brief trial.

Bishop awaits trial in the shotgun death of her brother in Massachusetts in 1986. The shooting of 18-year-old Seth Bishop had been ruled an accident after Amy Bishop told police at the time she shot him in the family's Braintree home as she was trying to unload her father's gun.

But the Alabama slayings led to a new investigation and charges ...

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57518798-504083/amy-bishop-ex-univ-of-alabama-professor-who-pleaded-guilty-to-shooting-six-people-heads-to-court/

[MicaelS]

1. I was really surprised when she plead guilty..

I figured her and her husband were to going to drag it out to the bitter end. I guess she realized this way she avoided the needle.

[Eleanors38]

3. Dont favor death penalty, but alabama does not fool around.nt

[4th law of robotics]

10. Women very rarely get the death penalty

Especially here given her mental state.

She's likely just going for a reduced sentence. Or perhaps her husband doesn't want to spend any more money on this.

[PavePusher]

2. So, what does this have to do with firearms law/policy?

I submit that had any of the other people in that meeting been lawfully armed (i.e. their Rights not curtailed without adequete compensatory measures), that the incident may have been prevented or it's severity lessened.

Feel free to weigh in if you think eleventy-hundred people would have died in the cross-fire before the survivors were massacred by the police who couldn't differentiate the good people from the bad people and spray-fired automatic assault rifles from the hip to end the carnage.

[struggle4progress]

4. "Bishop awaits trial in the shotgun death of her brother in Massachusetts in 1986. The shooting

of 18-year-old Seth Bishop had been ruled an accident after Amy Bishop told police at the time she shot him in the family's Braintree home as she was trying to unload her father's gun"

[friendly_iconoclast]

6. You either did not know or neglected to mention...

...that Bishop skated on that largely because the police somehow forgot to inform the DA that Bishop held a second person
at gunpoint while fleeing her brothers shooting. The fact that Bishop's mother ran the police retirement board might have had something to do with it.

This is less about firearms law and more small-town corruption.

[struggle4progress]

7. Here's a nice DU2 link for ya:

struggle4progress Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore | MFP
Tue Feb-16-10 04:34 AM
Original message
Quincy man recalls Amy Bishop with gun (Boston Globe | 15 Feb)

February 15, 2010 05:50 PM
By Peter Schworm, Globe Staff

Shortly after fatally shooting her brother in 1986, Amy Bishop held two men at gunpoint and demanded a getaway car at an auto repair shop near her family's Braintree home, according to one of the men involved.

Carrying a shotgun by her side, a 21-year-old Bishop walked intently across a car lot into the adjacent storefront, where she began searching for car keys. Coming down from the second floor, she was heading toward the garage when she ran into Tom Pettigrew and a friend, who had spotted her in the parking lot and came to investigate.

"Her gun hit me in the chest," Pettigrew, 45, recalled from his Quincy apartment. "I yelled, 'What are you doing?' and she screamed at me to put my hands up. So I put my hands up" ...

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/quincy_man_reca.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7723816&mesg_id=7723816

[friendly_iconoclast]

8. Well, goody for you. However, you still get a D- for poor research skills:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/02/17/bishop_could_have_been_tried_da_says/

Bishop could have been tried, DA says
Cites actions that followed brother’s death


Amy Bishop could have been charged with three serious crimes after she shot her younger brother to death in 1986, instead of being allowed to walk away without a mark on her criminal record, Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating said yesterday as he released Braintree police records missing for more than 20 years.


Keating said that he reviewed police reports and other documents in a case file recovered Monday from a retired Braintree police captain and concluded that prosecutors had probable cause to charge Bishop with assault with a dangerous weapon, carrying a dangerous weapon, and unlawful possession of ammunition, all in her attempt after the shooting to obtain a getaway car at gunpoint from a local auto body shop...

...That charges were never brought raises questions again about what happened to Braintree police reports that say Bishop went to an autobody shop after the shooting, brandishing the shotgun and demanding a car to escape in. Former Braintree Police Chief John Polio and former first assistant Norfolk district attorney John Kivlan said they never saw those reports.

“As I previously stated, the Braintree police report that was released today and [had] previously been reported as missing by the department, had never been brought to my attention,’’ Kivlan said yesterday. “Why the Braintree Police Department did not seek complaints in the Quincy District Court on the above charges is unknown to me.’’...

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/02/17/answers_are_overdue/

...Question 1: Why did it take 11 days for investigators to interview Amy Bishop after she killed her brother? The State Police report said that Braintree detectives wanted to give her “sufficient time to stabilize her emotions.’’ But 11 days? You can play a seven-game World Series in 11 days and still have time for the championship parade. Does this mean that if a crime suspect acts hysterical enough, they’ll be given time to take a Caribbean cruise?

Question 2: As my colleague Kevin Cullen asked yesterday, when Amy Bishop claimed to fire two accidental shots, is the second one really an accident?

Question 3: After Braintree police realized that Amy Bishop stormed into a car dealership after the shooting, allegedly pointed the shotgun at employees, and demanded a getaway car, did they really think she was fine to simply be released a couple of hours later?

Question 4: For that matter, given the fact she had just killed her brother, pointed a gun at a passing motorist, and threatened workers at Dave Dinger Ford, shouldn’t there have been some charges involved, maybe involving a firearm? Why did she have an extra round in her pocket when she was arrested?...

Keep telling us that gun laws and not police ineptitude and/or corruption were at fault here. Maybe you'll get someone to believe you...

[struggle4progress]

9. Another nice DU2 link for ya:

struggle4progress Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore | MFP
Tue Feb-16-10 07:24 PM
Original message
Read the Report: Missing Police Records In '86 Bishop Case Found (TPM Muckraker)

Justin Elliott | February 16, 2010, 6:52PM

The Norfolk County District Attorney has found and released the missing Braintree police report describing the 1986 incident in which Amy Bishop killed her teenage brother.

The DA concludes that, "The analysis of the newly received documents, as well as the previously released March 30, 1987 State Police report indicate that probable cause existed at that time to place Amy Bishop under arrest charged with:
Assault with a Dangerous Weapon, Chap. 265 Sec. 15B
Carrying a Dangerous Weapon, Chap. 269 Sec. 10, 12D
Unlawful possession of ammunition, Chap. 269 Ch. 10 (h)"

However, "The statute of limitations has run on all of those charges" ... http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/local...


Prosecutor says Amy Bishop could have been charged in 1986

Norfolk County prosecutors have just announced that they have located the missing files in the 1986 shooting death of Seth Bishop by his sister, Amy Bishop. The Norfolk County district attorney now says that, after reviewing the files, he has concluded that probable cause existed in 1986 to arrest Amy Bishop and charge her with assault and weapons crimes ... http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/prosecutor_says.html

On 16 February 2010 -- the day before the particular story you just linked had even been written -- I had already linked to a story quoting the prosecutor as saying Amy Bishop could properly have been charged in 86

[friendly_iconoclast]

12. You knew before you wrote the OP that Bishop legally had a gun because of misfeasance/malfeasance...

...but we were supposed to gather what, exactly about gun laws?

[Eleanors38]

5. Why, a gun!!! It is about prohibition, ya know.nt

[4th law of robotics]

11. The University was a gun free zone

This is interesting because that shooting could not have happened since it required a gun and guns were banned.

[friendly_iconoclast]

13. Just like the Century Aurora cinema was

Perhaps the public at large will catch on that word magic doesn't actually work...