AMY BISHOP UPDATE: She's changed her mind, she's innocent.

Female murderers are a rarity. That's probably why society tends to focus so much attention on them and their crimes. Maybe it's even the reason why they're treated so harshly when it comes to sentencing or coverage by the press. Homicide isn't supposed to be in a woman's domain, after all. Killing isn't ladylike.

 

Nevertheless, if ever there was a killer out there who justifies the existence, and necessity, of the death penalty, it would be the Butcher of Braintree Dr. Amy Bishop.

 

With a long history dating back to when she was only 21 of murder and attempted murder and other assorted mayhem--for which she was never punished--she's in prison now only for one of those offenses: the 2010 Huntsville Massacre, in which she shot to death three of her fellow biology professors and seriously maimed three more for life.

 

As with Bishop's prior (covered up) crimes, her bloody campus rampage was a premeditated act too, allegedly committed because she felt she'd been "robbed" of tenure at the Alabama university where she taught neuroscience to undergraduates.

 

It was an open and shut case against her, of course, but in the state of Alabama she faced being put to death if she was found guilty of mass murder, and her attorneys realized that a bogus insanity defense, not supported by medical experts or any evidence, wasn't going to save her.

 

This was why, at the eleventh hour, Amy Bishop copped a plea and admitted she was guilty for the slayings of her colleagues. In the process, tacitly agreeing it would be better to sit for the rest of her life in a jail cell without the possibility of parole or appeal, than to sit strapped for only a few short minutes in the electric chair.

 

Proof the woman doesn't mind taking other peoples' lives, but the thought of losing her own as a consequence was obviously unpleasant.

 

Her guilty plea legally approved by the trial court, Bishop was then quickly transferred to Tutwiler Prison this past September, and, after spending the first month there separated from the general population, faced having to be fully integrated with fellow inmates by early November.

 

All in all then, this career criminal spent perhaps 40 or so days of her life sentence at this historic institution for females before deciding the experience was beneath her and reneging on her plea deal.

 

And it goes without saying, if the defendant had gotten the sentence she truly deserved right from the start, this latest travesty of justice she's engineered could never have happened, and Alabama taxpayers wouldn't be charged with yet another huge bill for her defense expenses.

 

Below is a copy of Bishop's notice of appeal, filed with the Madison County Circuit Court of Alabama on November 5th, 2012. Although the document doesn't state on what flimsy grounds she plans to rescind her guilty plea, rumor has it she intends to argue that her lawyers were incompetent. Although she agreed not to appeal in exchange for a life sentence, those same attorneys are required by law to sign and file an appeal for her if she demands one. They have fulfilled this obligation to their client, but have removed themselves from representing her any further.

 

"Pitching a fit"

One month anniversary for The Butcher of Braintree

It's been just a little over a month now since Dr. Amy Bishop (aka Amy Bishop-Anderson) pled guilty to massacring her fellow biology professors at the University of Alabama at Huntsville in 2010, and, in so pleading, spared herself from the electric chair.

 

Since that time, she's been assigned brand new digs at famed Tutwiler Prison, where she was promptly whisked away this past September, without ceremony and with little or no time for her to start "pitching a fit."

That's the term her former guards and jail warden had become accustumed to using in describing Bishop's  fairly predictable and routine outbursts under their watch.

 

Pitching a fit, getting into fisticuffs, and basically wreaking havoc on whatever community she's a member of, is standard misconduct for this violent career felon. And even corrections officials, now fully acquainted with the Butcher of Braintree  and her overall negative attitude  toward her fellow human beings, automatically know to duck her moods and swings, having learned for themselves what a difficult inmate (and person) she can be.

 

It probably also doesn't surprise them much, having gotten to know the professor so well these past two years, that Bishop can turn murderous at the drop of a hat.

 

For the 30+ days Bishop's been housed at Tutwiler, the place where she'll ultimately be spending the rest of her life without the remotest possibility of parole even if she could summon up good behavior, she's been isolated from the other prisoners. But that situation is going to change any day now. Which means, if you know anything about this haughty mass murderer, she'll be on the bloody warpath soon for some perceived wrong or minor slight.

 

That's right, I predict, once she's fully released into the general population, that all hell's gonna break loose in Tutwiler Prison, and that, what's more, it won't take very long for that to happen.

 

(I'll keep you updated on this, rest assured.)

 

 

Amy Bishop Trial - Breaking News

Dr. Amy Bishop, the Harvard-educated professor who gunned down three of her colleagues and injured three more at the University of Alabama at Huntsville in 2010, and who pleaded guilty to mass murder earlier this month, has just been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

 

Prosecutors in Massachusetts have been eagerly awaiting the Alabama jury's sentencing decision in order to determine how to next proceed in a trial soon to be calendared there. Bishop must now face justice in that state as well for the shooting death of her 18-year-old brother Seth in 1986.

 

All late-breaking Bishop updates will be posted on this site. Download the complete case profile and analysis of this killer and career criminal, including details of the murder of her brother in Braintree Massachusetts, HERE or HERE

Closure nearing for Huntsville Massacre

BISHOP MASS MURDER TRIAL BEGINS @ 10:00 AM TODAY:  Now that Dr. Amy Bishop has pled guilty to the Huntsville Alabama campus rampage she planned and executed in 2010, she no longer has to fear the death penalty; nor will she be able to bog down Alabama's cash-strapped justice system with proving her insanity defense. Sane or not, doesn't matter anymore. But because she faces, instead, life without parole for slaying three of her fellow biology professors and wounding three more, she must still sit through an abbreviated trial for sentencing purposes. That finally begins today.

 

Whatever the final legal disposition of this contest should be, it's not the last we'll hear from or about The Butcher of Braintree, since she'll also have to face trial in Massachusetts soon for the 1986 murder of her younger brother Seth. Breaking news regarding that matter, and all other Bishop updates, will continue to be posted here on Killing Killers.

 

Have a NookReader? Download my Bishop case study here.

 

 

Bishop pleads GUILTY

Mass murderer Dr. Amy Bishop The Butcher of Braintree pleaded guilty yesterday to the Huntsville Massacre she planned and executed in February of 2010. This spares victims and their loved ones of a grisly trial which had, after a number of strategic delays, been slated for the 24th of this month. Instead, a brief sentencing trial will take place on this date. Her guilty plea removes the prospect of the death penalty, however.

 

Professor Debra Moriarty, who bravely helped commandeer Dr. Bishop out of the faculty room that day when Bishop's gun jammed, said she was relieved. "I had a horrible dream about the trial last night. I'm glad it's a recognition of the crimes she committed and not trying to get out of something through claiming a mental defect." 

 

The guilty plea and speedy sentencing will now pave the way for Bishop to face trial in Massachusetts for the 1986 murder of her 18-year-old brother Seth. Prosecutors there say they are awaiting the sentencing verdict in the Alabama case in order to decide how they will proceed next.

 

Amy Bishop brutally shot her brother to death in the kitchen of their parents' home in Braintree Massachusetts, fled the scene with the loaded shotgun, attempted a carjacking with it, and refused to disarm and surrender when finally surrounded by police. An apparent coverup then went into play, resulting in her release to her mother only hours later. She was never charged for anything and the record of the event was mysterously removed from law enforcement files soon thereafter. It only resurfaced again because of her apprehension in the Huntsville Alabama slayings almost three decades later. In between these two dates, Bishop committed other serious offenses as well, including assault, for which she also escaped justice virtually unscathed.

 

Bishop butchered three of her fellow biology professors in the 2010 campus rampage and wounded three others, leaving two of them in critical condition and maimed for life. Faced with a death sentence in Alabama for the killings, she had finally pled not guilty by reason of insanity. It is not known if she intends to do the same in Massachusetts.

 

Jury selection begins in Huntsville Massacre

Lawyers for Dr. Amy Bishop, the Butcher of Braintree, are preparing their strategy for selecting sympathetic jurors in her upcoming capital murder trial later this month. Bishop is charged with gunning down her fellow professors at the University of Alabama at Huntsville in 2010 and faces the death penalty in Alabama if convicted.

 

There are two separate phases of the trial that her defense team has to concern themselves with now: presenting the evidence, which for Bishop is quite damning, and the sentencing aspect itself. They're seeking to mitigate the case for capital punishment against their client with an insanity plea, and, thus, hoping to find jurors who are receptive to the alternative of life in prison without parole.

 

Lawyers from both sides are permitted a certain number of strikes when selecting prospective candidates from the jury pool, establishing "cause" for eliminating  those individuals they feel are "incapable of being fair" either because they too strongly favor the death penalty or else are staunchly opposed to it on religious or philosophical grounds.

 

In the end, however, it's typical for jurors with either opposing point of view to be approved and seated, since they're under oath throughout the selection process and have sworn they can consider the facts of the case without bias.

 

But all this pretrial strategizing may prove for naught anyway because, according to Alabama law, a judge is not bound by a jury's sentencing recommendations. And, should this one feel that Bishop's penalty is too harsh or too lenient, they'll simply overrule it and substitute the form of justice they think is most appropriate.

 

A decision which can (and most likely will) be promptly appealed, considering that this is such a high profile case and that Bishop has also been charged with a separate homicide conviction for which she must still stand trial in Massachusetts, where she murdered her teenage bother Seth in 1986.

 

 

 

Amy Bishop murder trial (countdown)

Barring anymore legal wrangling by Amy Bishop's defense team, there is (finally) less than a month remaining until her trial for the Huntsville Massacre is slated to begin. The matter has been calendared for September 24th 2012.

Team Bishop has succeeded in putting off judgment day for well over a year now. However, with their most recent motion and appeal denied, there can be little else left for them to do but to proceed as directed--and to do so without expert testimony, if they must.

Expert medical testimony in support of her insanity plea is at the crux of Dr. Bishop's defense woes: She's lost her livelihood as a result of gunning her colleagues down at the University of Alabama, and, as an indigent in the court system, her lawyers contend she needs the fees for expert opinions paid up front.

The court has said no way, and the appeal of that decision was upheld last month.

 

Declaring yourself "not guilty of murder be reason of insanity" is a difficult defense to prove at best, let alone without doctors supporting the contention, so, rest assured, if Bishop gets sentenced to death in Alabama for lack of this required testimony, there will be mountains of appeals filed in hopes of having that verdict vacated.

 

So stay tuned. This should be an interesting contest, possibly paving the way for Bishop's separate trial in Massachusetts for the 1986 murder of her brother Seth. The date of which, like her fate, is still uncertain. 

Find the complete case study HERE

 

New Release - True Crime

Killing Killers presents: THE BUTCHER OF BRAINTREE, by Eponymous Rox. Available now at all Amazon kindle stores. Only $1.99 digital download. Murder, mass murder, mayhem, and more.

Read the book details here.

MASS MURDER & MAYHEM: Coming in August

Is this affluent mass-murderer and career felon really insane as her lawyers now are claiming, or is she just 'crazy like a fox' and hoping to dodge a death sentence? Meet The Butcher Of Braintree in a new and in-depth analysis of the life, times and covered up crimes of homicidal professor Dr. Amy Bishop.

Find this special true crime report by Eponymous Rox in digital editions this August, just in advance of Bishop's September 2012 trial date for the Huntsville Massacre, which she carefully planned and executed at the University of Alabama in 2010.