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-Lurid Crime Tales-

Lawyer: Prof. accused in slayings is remorseful

2010-02-20

The Alabama university professor charged with fatally shooting three colleagues is remorseful but does not recall the shooting, her defense attorney said Friday.
"What? What? Where am I?"
Have my mother call DA Delahunt! Whaddya mean I'm in Alabama? Whaddya mean it's 2010?
Roy W. Miller said Amy Bishop, 44, is likely insane and does not remember pulling out a handgun and shooting six colleagues, three fatally, at a biology department faculty meeting one week ago at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
The mouthpiece is doing his best but he's not going to spin this one enough to get her anything better than life without parole ...
"She just doesn't remember shooting these folks," he said.
Bet they remember getting shot, the ones that aren't dead.
But he said she is now "aware of what she's done. She's very sorry for it."
"Well, gosh! If I did somethin' I'm really sorry for it! What wuz it I did again?"
"I was sorry when I blew away my brother too. And I walked away clean. How come that's not working this time?"
"I didn't even put a gun in a car dealer's face this time! What's the problem?"
He said he has not spoken with her about where she got the gun.
"Gun? I have no gun!"
Police have said it was not registered to her, and her husband has said he does not know where she got it.
"But wait...! Could it have been...?"
"Been who?"
"Mamie. My sister. My twin sister! My evil twin sister!"
Miller said Bishop breaks down and cries,
"Oh, woe is me!"
wanting to see her four children,
"Oh, my poor babies!"
but is trying to remain strong.
[Snif!]
Despite facing a possible death sentence, she is still concerned about her professional life and her position at the university. "She said, 'Do I still have a job out there?'
"Why, no. Why do you ask?"
Sorry. It's right here in your contract. "Murder of colleagues may result in penalties up to and including job dismissal".
She asked me that yesterday," Miller said. "She said, 'Do you know if I have a job? I assume they fired me. Did they fire me?'"
"The wheels turn slowly in academia, but they do turn..."
We'll have to convene a peer review within her department. Oh, wait. There's none of them left. Whadda we do now?
Run an ad in Science ...
University officials have said she remains on the payroll, but her $83,000-a-year job was ending at the end of the semester because she was denied tenure.
So what is she on until then, double secret probation...

Posted by:Fred

#29 No they didn't. Go to your room, NS, for at least 3 minutes or so .... ;-)

Posted by: lotp 2010-02-20 20:48

#28 Somebody had to stick up for Gray.

Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-02-20 18:34

#27 Yes, my comment assumed Besoeker is male.

;-) re: Mrs. Davis. There's a long story behind that nym .....

Posted by: lotp 2010-02-20 18:32

#26 I have met a few 'Burgers, but not had the privilege of meeting Besoeker. I assumed #19 was making fun of your, presumably male, gender. Did I presume in error?

Of course, I used to think Mrs. Davis was a lady, until I met him.

Posted by: Bobby 2010-02-20 16:52

#25 On a more serious note, Best of the Web yesterday linked to a Psychology Today article which claims

The facts that are emerging about the personal life and behavior of Amy Bishop is that she is a very gifted, extremely hard working woman who has borne the guilt since she was 20 years old of having been her brother's killer.

According to one report by a friend, Bishop carried a deep sense of guilt about the death of her brother and planned to make it up by becoming a prominent scientist. This fact is significant for two reasons: (1) she is one who can not be said to be anti-social or psychopathic to the extent that she was haunted by what she had done, and (2), she felt compelled to try to make up for an act that few could live with. Work to her was thereby primary in her life.

So her odd mannerisms could be due to a lifelong burden of guilt rather than autism. It still doesn't excuse murder. Interesting articles all over the place!

Posted by: trailing wife 2010-02-20 16:40

#24 And definitely minimal eye liner. Sillies, both of you! :-D

Posted by: trailing wife 2010-02-20 16:28

#23 Good tips, Besoeker. A neutral color eye shadow and subtle blush are also appropriate. LOL

Posted by: lotp 2010-02-20 15:30

#22 #19 Besoeker, I'm sorry to hear that you've never had sex demanded as a condition for promotion. I'm sure it's no reflection on you ;-
Posted by lotp

There to be honest there were those few odd smiles and pregnant pauses, but I always wore something conservative to an interview. Something in a dark colour, well over the knee, with well polished low heeled pumps. I also used a minimal amount of lip gloss. I hope these tips help.

Posted by: Besoeker 2010-02-20 14:16

#21 She exhibited some symptoms before this happened, so I'm sure that will be at least floated before a jury

OTOH, one's forties are kind of old for the typical onset of schizophrenia (for instance).

Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2010-02-20 12:34

#20 Interesting interview at the Wall Street Journal -- Temple Grandin -- who talks about being autistic, succeeding at her profession both despite and because of her Asperger's, and the importance of teaching and demanding appropriate life skills behaviour for/from autistics. Key quote for this discussion

Born in 1947, she did not speak until the age of four. All of the doctors recommended permanent institutionalization; her father agreed.

But her mother refused and hired a speech therapist and a nanny who spent many hours a week taking turns playing games with her daughter. She insisted that Temple practice proper etiquette, go to church, interact with adults at parties. "I'd be in an institution if it wasn't for her," Ms. Grandin says.

If she's going to play the Asperger card, Professor Bishop is going to have to claim nobody told her explicitly that she wasn't to shoot people when she didn't get her way, whether because shooting people is generally considered rude or because shooting people is not an effective method of persuasion. Either way, not an argument likely to win over juries. Especially because her life skills are clearly good enough for marriage, parenting, and maintaining a viable career for the better part of two decades.

Professor Grandin recently published two books of particular use to those with autism spectrum disorders: Developing Talents: Careers for Individuals with Asperger Syndrome and High-Functioning Autism and Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships. Professor Bishop would have benefitted from reading both.

Cornsilk Blondie, I expressed myself poorly -- I meant to agree with you.

Posted by: trailing wife 2010-02-20 12:26

#19 Besoeker, I'm sorry to hear that you've never had sex demanded as a condition for promotion. I'm sure it's no reflection on you ;-)

Posted by: lotp 2010-02-20 11:10

#18 tw, if my comment seemed to imply that I thought it somehow mitigated what she had done, that wasn't my intent. I also wasn't trying to slam anyone with anything on the spectrum, either.

It's just that if her mouthpiece is any good, he/she/it is gonna try anything and everything to save her sorry @ss from whatever punishment Alabama is going to dish out. It has already been tried a few times as a mitigating factor for a murder trial, and even has been used to explain the actions of Dahmer and Kaczynski.

She exhibited some symptoms before this happened, so I'm sure that will be at least floated before a jury. I just hope that all of the other millions of people who have this aren't gonna suffer even more socially than they already do because of this evil broad's acts.

Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2010-02-20 10:54

#17 I think they have more than enough bags of hammers there, meneer

Posted by: Pappy 2010-02-20 10:46

#16 Oh NO! Not the the money, sex, promotion gender discrimination paradigm again. Arguing logic and exceptions to given rules with acadamia. When will I ever learn? Did I mention the gender discrimination default?

My hands are shaking and my eyes are becoming bloodshot. I'm off to Home Depot.

Posted by: Besoeker 2010-02-20 10:31

#15 One other note:

given that her husband is working for their startup company, there's a good chance that her benefits provided the only health insurance for their kids. Review committees are supposed to move with deliberation to make sure that disrupting that sort of thing for a faculty member's family isn't done lightly, especially since faculty hiring generally happens only once a year with a very long lead time.

So yeah, one way or another she will never be back in the classroom and her association with the university will end. It just won't be a 'wrath of God thunderbolt' kind of event.

Posted by: lotp 2010-02-20 10:25

#14 re: #11 - Yes, Besoeker, we are. And yes, she's guilty as hell of a heinous crime.

Doesn't change the original intent of the tenure process and the review layers built into public universities.

She's locked up and won't go anywhere. She was gonna face contract end in May or so anyway. They may well fire her before then, depending on whether she's convicted by then.

The personnel process is set up to make sure that firings doesn't happen at the whim of a department head or administrator. A process that could happen quickly to her, when it's warranted, could also be used to push out others where it isn't.

For example, conservative faculty whose political convictions became known to their liberal department head and provost. Or, as happened to a friend of mine teaching physics in the 80s, if a woman declined to sleep with her department head during the tenure review.

To take just a couple examples.

Posted by: lotp 2010-02-20 10:19

#13 I'm of coure not privy to the investigation but I've read nothing that would indicate she had a prior history of mental illness. There does appear to be a signficant body of evidence which could lead one to conclude she had a long history of SELFISH EVIL ACTS! I don't think insanity will take her far with an Alabama jury.

Posted by: Besoeker 2010-02-20 10:18

#12 she'll probably claim Asperger's or something.

Cornsilk Blondie, based on student complaints about her teaching style (didn't meet peoples' eyes, read her lectures aloud from textbook) she may have an argument. But that doesn't make deliberate murder excusable.

Posted by: trailing wife 2010-02-20 09:59

#11 #8 Maybe. But remember: tenure was established as an alternative to the political patronage system.lotp

Either my logic is woefully skewed or somehow I've awaken this morning in a parallel universe. Are we not discussing the cold blooded murder of three professors and the wounding of two more?

Posted by: Besoeker 2010-02-20 09:53

#10 Ahhh, a "Schizo"..

Why is the AyPee headline reading 'Accused', c'mon? (never mind)

Posted by: Tom-Pa 2010-02-20 09:49

#9 'moose, she'll probably claim Asperger's or something. Not that it will probably work, since she has a pretty good lifetime body count and Alabama's not as tolerant of killing in cold blood like Massachusetts apparently is.....

Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2010-02-20 09:48

#8 Maybe. But remember: tenure was established as an alternative to the political patronage system.

Pendulum's swung and the process has too many accredtions and unintended side effects. But as we reform it, it's worth keeping in mind that tenure and the appeal system were put in place as reform.

Posted by: lotp 2010-02-20 09:46

#7 State systems take their time due to the grievance procedure involved. Posted by Steve White

Which could be symptomatic of an even greater ill.

Posted by: Besoeker 2010-02-20 09:40

#6 Well no, she would have been suspended with pay until dismissed. Which takes time even for the cardinal sin of saying something untoward about a person of color. State systems take their time due to the grievance procedure involved.

Posted by: Steve White 2010-02-20 09:33

#5 After shooting, killing and wounding how many people before numerous witnesses, she is STILL on the payroll....? This is the real outrage.

Had she been accused of discrimination or a racial slur she would have been suspended without pay or terminated immediately.

Posted by: Besoeker 2010-02-20 08:50

#4 I expect her defense to become even more colorful. While she and her husband are alleged to both have IQs of around 180, they are both woefully naive about the legal system, how to garner public support, and how to fake an insanity defense.

Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-02-20 08:37

#3 She's sorry she got caught.

Posted by: Rex Mundi 2010-02-20 01:00

#2 "Boo hoo hoo. Can I go now?"

Posted by: gorb 2010-02-20 00:58

#1 Oh, I'm sorry!

Did I just premeditatedly murder those people in cold blood? How did that happen?

Posted by: Karl the Fat 2010-02-20 00:14

00:00