Take gun and shoot them in the head. Then laugh
loud.
Or take one machete and a parang and start slashing everyone
in the office.
<!-- START article -->
FILE - This Feb. 13, 2010, file …
FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2012, …
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — A Harvard-educated biologist
was sentenced to life in prison without parole Monday after being
convicted of going on a shooting rampage during a faculty meeting
at an Alabama university, killing three colleagues and wounding
three others in 2010.
The jury deliberated for about 20 minutes before convicting
Amy Bishop. The former professor at the
University of Alabama in Huntsville showed no reaction as the
verdict was read. She did not speak in court, but her attorney said
she has often expressed great remorse for the victims and their
families.
"She is shattered beyond belief," attorney Roy Miller said.
Bishop avoided a death sentence by pleading guilty earlier this
month to the shootings on Feb. 12, 2010. Before the guilty plea —
which she signed with a barely legible scrawl — her attorneys had
said they planned to use an insanity defense.
However, she was still required to have a brief trial because
she admitted to a capital murder charge.
And she still could face a trial in Massachusetts, where she is charged in the 1986 killing
of her 18-year-old brother. Seth Bishop's
death had been ruled an accident after Amy
Bishop told investigators she shot him in the family's
Braintree home as she tried to unload her father's gun. But the
Alabama shootings prompted a new investigation and charges. David
Traub, a spokesman for Norfolk District Attorney
Michael Morrissey in Massachusetts, said Monday evening that
Morrissey expects to make an announcement by the end of the
week.
Bishop killed her boss, biology department chairman Gopi Padila,
plus professors Maria Ragland Davis and
Adriel Johnson. Associate professor Joseph Leahy, staff aide
Stephanie Monticciolo and assistant professor Luis Cruz-Vera were
shot and wounded.
Leahy said he was satisfied with the verdict and life sentence,
but no amount of remorse by Bishop could change what she'd
done.
"She has just sort of ceased to exist for me," he told reporters
after the brief trial.
A police investigator testified that Bishop initially denied
having anything to do with the rampage. And during the trial,
Bishop shook her head anytime the judge or prosecutors described
the killings as intentional.
District Attorney Rob Broussard said Bishop's reaction in court
didn't make sense.
"You can't take a loaded 9 mm and hold it inches away from human
beings' heads and tell me you didn't mean to do that," said
Broussard.
Investigator Charlie Gray also said police believe Bishop opened
fire during the faculty meeting because she was angry over being
denied tenure, which effectively ended her career at the University
of Alabama in Huntsville.
"She would say, 'It didn't happen. I wasn't there. It wasn't
me,'" Gray said.
Bishop wore a red jail uniform in court and was shackled at the
feet, seated between two attorneys at the defense table.
Also in court, sitting behind prosecutors, were relatives of the
people killed in the rampage.
The only other witness to testify was Debra
Moriarity, now the chairman of biological sciences at UAH.
She testified about how a routine Friday afternoon faculty meeting
turned into a scene of carnage with no warning.
Moriarty testified that Amy Bishop sat unusually silent during
the nearly hourlong faculty meeting, during which discussions ran
from a spring open house to plans for the following fall. People
were seated around a crowded conference table in a small room on a
chilly, overcast day, she said.
Moriarity said she glanced down at a piece of paper on the
table. "And there was a loud bang," she said.
Moriarity said more shots followed in quick succession without
Bishop ever saying a word. Moriarity said she was looking directly
at Bishop when she shot professor Maria Ragland Davis, who was
killed instantly while still seated at the table.
Moriarity said she dove under the table for safety and tried to
grab Bishop's legs, but the woman stepped out of her grasp. "I was
saying, 'Stop, Amy, stop. Don't do this. I've helped you before,
I'll help you again.'"
Moriarity said Bishop pointed the gun at her and pulled the
trigger, but nothing happened. She said Bishop continued trying to
shoot her in a hall outside, but the gun had jammed.