Massachusetts declines prosecuting Amy Bishop for her brother’s death

UAH shooter Amy Bishop wants trial on brother‘s killing to prove ‘loving and caring relationship’ with him (updated)

Published: Tuesday, October 02, 2012, 9:22 AM
Updated: Tuesday, October 02, 2012, 11:59 AM

By The Associated Press

BOSTON — The former University of Alabama in Huntsville professor sentenced to life in prison last week in a shooting rampage that killed three of her colleagues wants to go on trial in the 1986 death of her brother in Massachusetts.

Madison County corrections officers escort UAH shooter Amy Bishop to a courtroom for her plea hearing on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011. (The Huntsville Times/Glenn Baeske)

Court documents filed by Amy Bishop‘s lawyer say she objects to a decision by Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey to decline to prosecute her in the killing of 18-year-old Seth Bishop.

Attorney Larry Tipton says Bishop wants to prove at trial that she had a “loving and caring relationship” with her brother and that the shooting was accidental.

David Traub, a spokesman for the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office said this morning that the filing was “legally meaningless.”

Roy Miller and Robert Tuten, who helped defend Bishop in her Alabama criminal case, said they thought it was highly unlikely that Alabama would ever release Bishop to face charges in Massachusetts.

“It’ll be a cold day in hell when Alabama

Amy Bishop Anderson gets a new name: 285694

Amy Bishop’s Tutwiler Prison mugshot released

Published: Thursday, September 27, 2012, 8:25 AM
Updated: Thursday, September 27, 2012, 9:53 AM
By The Huntsville Times

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — State prison officials have released the booking mugshot of Amy Bishop taken when she was processed into the Tutwiler Prison for Women on Tuesday.

Bishop, 47, was convicted Monday of killing three people at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and trying to kill three others in February 2010.

Amy Bishop Anderson, official portrait from Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women, Wetumpka, Alabama

Bishop received

Amy Bishop gets off scot-free in brother’s murder

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Ex-Alabama prof won’t be tried in brother’s death

By JAY LINDSAY Associated Press  / September 28, 2012

FILE – This Feb. 13, 2010, file booking photo provided by the Huntsville, Ala., Police Department shows college professor Amy Bishop, charged with capital murder in the Feb. 12, 2010 shooting deaths of three faculty members at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Bishop pleaded guilty to capital murder charges in an agreement that will send to her prison for the rest of her life and make her ineligible for the death penalty. A judge scheduled jury selection for Monday, Sept. 24, 2012, as a trial is still required under Alabama law because Bishop admitted to a capital charge of murder. (AP Photo/Huntsville Police Department, File)

BOSTON (AP) — A former Alabama professor convicted of fatally shooting three colleagues won’t face a Massachusetts murder trial in the 1986 death of her brother after prosecutors withdrew their indictment.

The announcement Friday by the Norfolk district attorney follows Amy Bishop’s sentencing this week to life in prison without parole for the killings at the University of Alabama-Huntsville in February 2010.

In a statement, Michael Morrissey said the life sentence his office would have pursued in the killing of 18-year-old Seth Bishop was identical to the punishment she received after her guilty plea in Alabama, so there was no need to move forward.

‘‘We will not move to have her returned to Massachusetts,’’ Morrissey said. ‘‘The penalty we would seek for a first degree murder conviction is already in place.’’

The office withdrew the indictment ‘‘without prejudice,’’ meaning Morrissey could reinstate it if something went wrong in the Alabama sentence, though he said he considered that unlikely.

Amy Bishop, convicted of killing three colleagues at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, appears on the cover of the January 2009 cover of the Huntsville R&D Report.

Bishop said

Disgraced Alabama Jurist Roy Moore disgraces himself… again. This time, during UAH Professor Murderess Amy Bishop’s guilty plea.

Perhaps it was the Almighty calling him, eh?

I can hear the dialogue now:

“Roy… don’t run again, son. You’ve already embarrassed Me enough, and shown what an idiot you are. So do me a favor, go back home, and go fishing in the lake, instead.”

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Chief Justice candidate Roy Moore apologizes after cell phone rings during Amy Bishop hearing

Published: Tuesday, September 11, 2012, 5:49 PM / Updated: Tuesday, September 11, 2012, 5:49 PM

By Paul Gattis, The Huntsville Times

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — As a packed courtroom hung on every word uttered as Amy Bishop pleaded guilty today to capital murder, one sound briefly drowned out all others.

Roy Moore’s cell phone.

UAH Professor Killer Amy Bishop Pleads Guilty

The reader should understand: The cost of trying capital cases – cases in which the penalty is, or may be death – are EXCEEDINGLY more expensive than any other case, simply because of the numerous levels of mandatory appeals. Thus, by pleading guilty, and spending the rest her natural life behind bars – without the possibility of parole, and being given humane healthcare – the District Attorney, Amy Bishop and her defense attorneys have saved Madison County, Huntsville, and the State of Alabama many MILLIONS of tax dollars.

That is true, even given that she may live perhaps another 40 years – though that is highly unlikely, simply because incarceration exacts a physical toll upon a person’s life, shortening it by many years. Estimating a cost of $20,000/year (which includes the total cost of employees to guard & manage the system, cost of operations, etc.), and supposing she lives another 40 years (which is less likely, than not) the total flat-line cost would be $800,000.

A 2004 report entitled “State Prison Expenditures, 2001” by James B. Stephan, Statistician for the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, of the Department of Justice, found that the cost of food and medical expenses, food service & utilities cost per prisoner in Alabama was $1776. Alabama’s Average Annual Operating Cost per prisoner was $8128 – THE lowest of 50 states. Other components of cost – employee cost, salaries, wages, benefits, supplies, maintenance, contractual services, and other aspects of facility operation, etc. – account for nearly 96% of all operating costs. According to the report, of all states, Alabama has the HIGHEST per-prisoner cost of utilities as a percentage of operating expenditure, at 5.7%. Perhaps it’s time to rethink solar, wind and other sources of renewable energy?

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Sep 11, 3:15 PM EDT

Ex-prof pleads guilty to killing Ala. colleagues

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — An ex-professor pleaded guilty Tuesday to fatally shooting three colleagues and wounding three others at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, court officials said.

Amy Bishop, 47, pleaded guilty to one count of capital murder involving two or more people and three counts of attempted murder. She had earlier pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Amy Bishop pleads guilty to murder and attempted murder in Madison County.

Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty against the Harvard-educated Bishop and it was not immediately clear if they would drop the penalty as part of the plea deal. Sentencing will be after arguments are heard at a hearing on Sept. 24.

Prosecutors say

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.

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.

UAH President Dr. David B. Williams resigns… as predicted.

Regular readers of this blog will note that in an earlier entry entitled “UAH President Dr. David Williams to resign” which was published Wednesday, February 17, 2010, I predicted Williams’ resignation.

Today’s – Tuesday, March 15, 2011 – Huntsville Times front page headline which read “Williams surprises UAH with departure,” comes as no surprise at all.

UAH President David Williams resigns – Huntsville Times front page 3/15/11

What I found particularly interesting about the article was that

UAH President Dr. David Williams to resign

The good president cannot recover from this coup de grace, and will be forced to resign amidst public outcry from the students, their parents, the university’s employees (faculty and staff) while the Board of Trustees remains curiously silent.

In the coming days and months, the university will face significant losses from civil lawsuits over