Alabama State Budget Hardships is Justice Delayed for Amy Bishop. Could she go free?

The GOP dominated state government has no clue about how to run the state.

Accused murderess, Harvard PhD-educated former UAH biolgoy professor Amy Bishop steps off the elevator at Madison County Courthouse, Huntsville, AL. Statewide funding crises have indefinitely delayed her trial. (The Huntsville Times/Glenn Baeske)

The results are horrific.

Here’s one example.

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – The high-profile murder case against accused UAH shooter Amy Bishop has been delayed.

Circuit Judge Alan Mann approved a defense request Friday to push back the start date for Bishop’s trial.

The case had been set to begin March 19 and no new date was immediately set.

Prosecutors are

Alabama’s inept governor & legislature are clueless on how to remedy problems. And in other news…

Face it folks, Alabama MUST change its tax policy and law – something about which Alabamians have been warned for quite some time. It’s not as if we’ve never heard the idea or notion, for indeed, Alabama’s income tax assesses a heavier levy upon the poor than the wealthy, and many large corporate timberland-owners (Georgia Pacific, Weyerhauser, International Paper, Gulf States Paper, et al) pay little or nothing on their vast holdings by comparison to others.

As the issue of a potential shut-down of state services (the forensics lab in Huntsville) relates to criminal prosecution, I could imagine that a sharp attorney could move for dismissal of charges based upon delay of prosecution – which is a federal Constitutional issue – because the Sixth Amendment guarantees the accused the right to a speedy trial, among other aspects of prosecution.

And that issue – a violation of the Sixth Amendment – is one reason why I can imagine former UAH professor Amy Bishop – accused of murdering her colleagues – may have a federal case on her side, because the state of Alabama has virtually shut down all funding of public defense and defenders.

Just to remind the readers, the Sixth Amendment reads: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.“

And for those readers whom, for one reason or another, are not up to speed on the wranglings of Alabama politics, India Lynch vs. State of Alabama – the federal case in which Alabama’s tax policies were on trial – ended in October 2011, with a 854-page ruling in the state’s favor by His Honor, Judge Lynwood Smith in which existing tax structures & organization were found not to be unconstitutional. That story may be found here.

Alabama State Capitol Building, Montgomery, AL

The background: Alabama’s state income tax kicks in for families that earn as little a $4,600. Mississippi starts at over $19,000. Alabamians with incomes under $13,000 pay 10.9 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes, while those who make over $229,000 pay just 4.1 percent. Alabama relies heavily on state sales tax, which runs as high as 11 percent and applies even to groceries and infant formula.

A primary reason Alabama’s poor pay so much is that large timber companies and megafarms pay so little. The state allows big landowners to value their land using ”current use” rules, which significantly underestimate its value. Then individuals are allowed to fully deduct the federal income taxes they pay from their state taxes, something few states allow, which is a boon for those in the top income brackets.

So yeah.

We’re very fouled up here in the heart of Dixie.

And while the GOP controls the Governor’s Office, State House & Senate and most all high-level state offices, there are no signs of progress toward equity or justice.

But read on to learn why…

Potential cuts for state forensics: ‘It’s going to impact everybody’s lives’

Published: Saturday, March 10, 2012, 10:55 AM

By Paul Gattis, The Huntsville Times

Marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamines.

The evidence spans 18,000 different cases. And maybe by 2013, Lonnie Ginsberg hopes, the state will process most everything on those 12 shelves.

Maybe.

This is the uncertain world Ginsberg oversees in cash-strapped Alabama. The director of the Huntsville lab on Arcadia Circle, Ginsberg manages a complex he describes as overworked and understaffed – which is why some drugs confiscated by law enforcement may sit on a shelf for a year before being analyzed.

Given that scenario, Ginsberg is

How the State of Alabama is attempting to railroad Amy Bishop

Like her, love her, think she’s criminally insane, just plain stupid, idiotic, crazy like a fox, or no matter what…

Amy Bishop mug shot from Huntsville (Alabama) Police Department

there’s no denying that it continues to be exceedingly less expensive to keep a convicted criminal in jail for the rest of their natural life, including providing all humane healthcare, than it is to try a capital case – one for which the death penalty may be exacted.

Why?

The cost of mandatory appeals associated with death penalty cases, and lawyers’ time get very expensive.

It’s a crying shame that the state of Alabama has decided they do not want to pay for – because the reimbursement rate is so low, they might as well not pay for – just representation for the accused. It speaks volumes to the extremely lopsided sense of meanness – even cruelty – that have overcome many.

That statement is not meant to deny genuine representation, but to prevent abuse. Nor is it to forbid justice, but rather to assist in eliminating despiteful abuses of the system.

When one cannot pay for a case, it is justice denied.

And when one is denied justice, all are denied justice.

E pluribus unum.

Alabama wants Amy Bishop trial judge to cancel order for payments to expert witnesses

Published: Friday, February 24, 2012, 3:33 PM
Updated: Friday, February 24, 2012, 3:41 PM

 By Brian Lawson, The Huntsville Times The Huntsville Times

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — Attorneys for the Alabama Comptroller’s Office want the judge in the Amy Bishop capital murder case to vacate his orders for payments to defense expert witnesses and testing, according to a court filing today.

Bishop is set to go on trial

Amy Bishop indicted for UAH murders

Doubtless, former UAH president David B. Williams will be called to testify, and or be sued as well.

Amy Bishop indicted in UAH shootings

Published: Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 5:01 PM
By Brian Lawson, The Huntsville Times

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — A Madison County grand jury has indicted Amy Bishop on capital murder and attempted murder charges in connection with the February 2010 campus shootings at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Please describe what you were doing when the problem happened:

I was seated at the kitchen table, listening to satellite radio  – “Give A Little Bit” by Supertramp was playing – having taken a large sip of Fighting Cock 103 proof Kentucky whiskey, followed with a swig of Yuengling Original Black & Tan beer, while reading the Sunday funny papers from the Huntsville (Alabama) Times. Outside the window, a couple was looking around the property next door. Here comes the woman now, from around the corner. Oh… the table at which I’m seated is adjacent a window. I was breathing, and my blood was circulating, and I was thinking that

“It wasn’t me. I wan’t there.” -Amy “Wile E. Coyote” Bishop

“It wasn’t me.”

That’s the asinine claim being made by Dr. Amy Bishop, PhD (Harvard) – sometimes also known as Amy “Wile E. Coyote” Bishop – the former UAH Biology professor whom shot and killed three of her former colleagues, and seriously wounding three others.

No doubt, she’s working on a multiple personality disorder defense.

Crazy like a fox?
Huntsville Police Department Investigator David Gray testified about his 2-hour interview with Bishop, and reported that

UAHKiller “I’m Dr. Amy Bishop!”: She ain’t crazy; she’s just a mean ol’ bitch

A preliminary hearing was held yesterday in Madison County, AL Circuit Court for UAHKiller Amy Bishop.

It only took Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard 25 minutes

Hey, Bryan Stevens! Here’s a crazy idea… try an “insanity” defense for Amy Bishop!

Bryan Stevens, attorney for UAHBomber and UAHKiller Amy Bishop has already made a fool of himself publicly, commenting that the death of her brother Seth at her hands via pump shotgun, as “absolutely accidental.”

Readers may likely be aware of this blog’s Sunday 20 February 2010 entry entitled “Amy Bishop’s Attorney Bryan Stevens – Can’t Read? Sure – just like Amy Bishop can’t shoot.” in which two videos were linked to the story, along with detailed explanation of how a pump shotgun is loaded, discharged, reloaded, unloaded and placed in a safety mode to prevent discharge.

It was demonstrated that “accidental” discharge of that firearm is as impossible to do, as it is live in outer space without benefit of a special suit and breathing apparatus. A finger would have to be “accidentally” inside the trigger guard, on the trigger, and “accidental” pressure would have to be exerted on the trigger, as well as an “accidental” pump back, and then “accidental” pump forward, then an “accidental” aim.

Maybe Bryan’s working on an “accidental” defense.

Bryan, did you eat breakfast that day? ‘Cause buddy, someone else ate your lunch on that one. Matter of fact, it had probably already been eaten when it became evident that day that the cheese slid off your cracker a long time ago.

Bomb Making Materials found in Amy Bishop-Anderson’s home

Friday afternoon, 12 March 2010, Huntsville Police Department officials executed a search warrant on the McDowling Drive house of Amy Bishop and her husband Jim Anderson.

Neighborhood residents watched in shocked horror as they heard

Amy Bishop’s new book: “How I cooked my goose”; alternate working titles: “My mom lies for me, too!” -OR- “Shit! I missed her!”

Sometimes, it’s difficult to have an effective title, or headline to a new entry, so I decided to have a bit’o fun with this one.

The readers will remember that at age 19 Amy Bishop killed her 18-year old brother Seth with a pump shotgun, to which I referred in previous entries  – the most recent one being entitled “Amy Bishop’s Attorney Bryan Stevens – Can’t Read? Sure – just like Amy Bishop can’t shoot.“

The then-19-year-old Miss Bishop shot and killed her 18-year-old brother Seth, in the kitchen of their Braintree, MA home, after first “accidentally” discharging the same firearm in her bedroom upstairs, which blast her mother said she did not hear.

Following is Braintree Police Officer Charles N. Solimini’s recollection of the incident: