UA-Huntsville Professor Sentenced for Life in Alabama Shooting Rampage
ByA former University of Alabama- Huntsville professor who pleaded guilty earlier this month for opening fire at a faculty meeting in 2010 and killing three and wounding three other colleagues, has been sentenced for life without parole.
Amy Bishop, accused in the February 2010 rampage, was sentenced Monday. The Jury deliberated for about 20 minutes before convicting the 48-year old Harvard educated biology professor.
Those present at the court say she did not express any emotion while the verdict was read aloud. But her lawyers say she has expressed great remorse and has deeply felt sorry for the victims.
Earlier, she had pleaded not guilty as her lawyers were attempting to pursue an insanity defense. But, in the second week of this month, she cut a deal with prosecutors who said they would take capital punishment off the table in exchange for the guilty plea. Hence, she pleaded guilty in exchange for life in prison without parole.
Yet, she had to attend the brief trial Monday as she admitted to the capital murder charge.
The mother of four's shooting rampage at the faculty meeting killed her boss and biology department chairman Gopi Padila, professors Maria Ragland Davis and Adriel Johnson and those wounded were professor Joseph Leahy, staff aide Stephanie Monticciolo and assistant professor Luis Cruz-Vera.
Debra Moriarity, now the chairman of biological sciences at UAH was the only person to testify apart from the investigators. She described how the usual faculty meeting was suddenly filled with loud bangs of gun shots.
She said the Bishop started firing without even uttering a word.
This tragic incident led the investigators to look at the death of Bishop's brother, which was earlier ruled out as an accident, in a new light. Although she was sentenced in this shooting trial Monday, she may also have to go through a separate trial in the 1986 killing of her then 18-yaer-old brother in Massachusetts.