<p>DonnaL and mom, …as far as us ever understanding what was going through her head…at any time…we ain’t likely to get there. From all accounts she was wound up tighter than an 8 day clock. She could have been chasing him through the house.</p>
<p>I have a pump shotgun that I’ve fired thousands of times and it can’t possibly ‘accidentally’ go off 3 times and the only times it ever fired were when I loaded a shell into the chamber, slid the forearm forward, took off the safety, put my finger on the trigger, then pulled the trigger, and then to load another shell one must pump the action to eject the spent shell, load the next one, and then press the trigger again. A pump shotgun can’t load a shell by itself.</p>
<p>This sounds like a very disturbed individual.</p>
<p>Shouldn’t the people who investigated the shooting for the DA’s report, and interviewed the family, have known enough about shotguns to realize that the story made no sense?</p>
<p>Curmudgeon, I had the same thought, that maybe she shot at her brother upstairs and missed, and then chased him downstairs before killing him.</p>
<p>I wonder if her parents are even still alive; there’s been no mention of that in any of the stories.</p>
<p>This had nothing to do with the stress around tenure. It’s workplace violence.</p>
<p>Donna, I suspect she shot the hole in her bedroom wall because she wanted to make sure she knew how to work the shotgun before turning in on her brother. I simply do not believe the “it accidently went off again” story. If they were the mothers only two children, then it’s not a stretch to believe that in her shock she lied to cover up what really happened. </p>
<p>My heart breaks for these three individuals who dedicated their lives to education and to all who loved them. I also hope that the faculty and students are able to support each other in the days ahead.</p>
<p>I hope so too. And that those who were injured recover.</p>
<p>She needs to get the death penalty. Seriously.</p>
<p>you guys are making some great points. This whole thing stinks. </p>
<p>According to the report, the police swallowed the following story hook line and sinker: amy has a fight with her father, who leaves the house. she soon thereafter, not out of anger but by mistake during a coincidentally timed quest for technical understanding to protect herself from burglars, discharges a shotgun in her room. she then instead of dropping the allegedly wholly unfamiliar deadly weapon and running for help, comes downstairs with it still loaded. her mother says amy asked her for help and she told amy not to point the shotgun at anyone. amy however claims she asked her brother for help and he told her to point the shotgun upwards. of all things. the weapon then accidentally discharges for second time, killing her brother. she then leaves house, firing a third shot into the ceiling (which following the good points made above on how hard it is to accidentally fire a pump action, also virtually eliminates another already less likely possibility-that the shotgun was a sporting double barreled over/under or side by side weapon from which you can i suppose fire twice by mistake by two trigger pulls but would need to have reloaded at some point to do in the ceiling on the way out). she then points the gun at a car in the street before being disarmed at gunpoint by police. she subsequently claims to have remembered nothing. clearly an accident.</p>
<p>did the police examine the weapon to match her convoluted story of trying to unscrew this and that gee-gaw to its actual technical features? didn’t sound like it, and anyone remotely familiar with shotguns would not have referred to ammunition therefor as “bullets” instead of shells. what did they do to verify her story of being unfamiliar with the weapon? the report said brother and father were members of a gun club. did anyone check if amy ever went there? regular skeet shooting expeditions, for example, might cast further doubt on an already inconsistent defence.</p>
<p>it was awful watching the beautiful young lady in huntsville cry when she described how she and her father couldn’t get in touch with her stepmother, who was unbeknownst to them at that point, already dead.</p>
<p>The authorities in massachusetts have some serious explaining to do and so frankly does amy’s mother.</p>
<p>“She needs to get the death penalty. Seriously.”</p>
<p>Why? How would a state-supported murder somehow protect society or make this situation better? In her delusional mind, she probably thought she was doing something good and justified by murdering her colleagues. How would having the state legally execute her be any different? Something’s being state-sanctioned doesn’t mean that something is a good thing.</p>
<p>Life in prison with no chance of parole would probably keep the world safe from her while not involving other people in yet another murder.</p>
<p>The death penalty is NOT murder.</p>
<p>Murder is the taking of an innocent life.</p>
<p>However, I doubt she’ll get the DP. Not many women get the DP, especially a mother.</p>
<p>Sorry to hijack the thread, but the only argument I have against Cuse is the cost and effort to go that route. N’mom, some of us view law enforcement as more than just protecting society; there’s also an issue of punishment which is independent of that. Also there’s no such thing as life in prison sans parole - that sentence can always be reversed at a later date, and the prisoner released. There will some who view N’mom’s remedy as being unfair. If her “delusional mind” caused it, then it’s society’s obligation to try to remedy her mind, and once that’s achieved, why is the state-sanctioned life in prison, justified?</p>
<p>My point is that people who murder others think they are just as justified in murdering as does the state wnen it legally executes someone.</p>
<p>In her twisted mind, the professor probably felt that her actions were justified when she pulled out her gun and slaughtered her colleagues.</p>
<p>With the exception of self defense, I don’t believe in killing other people.</p>
<p>Research indicates that the death penalty doesn’t act as a deterrent.</p>
<p>“States Without the Death Penalty Have Better Record on Homicide Rates - A new survey by the New York Times found that states without the death penalty have lower homicide rates than states with the death penalty. The Times reports that ten of the twelve states without the death penalty have homicide rates below the national average, whereas half of the states with the death penalty have homicide rates above. During the last 20 years, the homicide rate in states with the death penalty has been 48% - 101% higher than in states without the death penalty. “I think Michigan made a wise decision 150 years ago,” said the state’s governor, John Engler, a Republican, referring to the state’s abolition of the death penalty in 1846. “We’re pretty proud of the fact that we don’t have the death penalty.” (New York Times, 9/22/00)”
[Deterrence:</a> States Without the Death Penalty Have Had Consistently Lower Murder Rates | Death Penalty Information Center](<a href=“http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/deterrence-states-without-death-penalty-have-had-consistently-lower-murder-rates]Deterrence:”>http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/deterrence-states-without-death-penalty-have-had-consistently-lower-murder-rates)</p>
<p>If the idea is to punish a murderer by killing them, I think that having to spend one’s life in prison – including having to die in prison (think about how most people die – chronic diseases – and imagine going through that in prison without the comfort of friends, loved ones, etc.) is a far greater punishment than execution, which takes only a few minutes.</p>
<p>Just look at the case of Susan Atkins-- the Manson follower who participated in the Sharon Tate murder – who died in prison of brain cancer last year after having her death penalty commuted to life in prison without parole. She as paralyzed on half of her body, and had a leg amputated. I think that having had to suffer like that in prison for many months was a far worse punishment than execution would have been.</p>
<p><a href=“Manson Disciple Susan Atkins Dies in Prison at 61 - ABC News”>http://abcnews.go.com/US/susan-atkins-charles-manson-murderer-dies-prison/story?id=8670008&page=1</a></p>
<p>One last thing: A friend of mine whose daughter and 6-year-old grandson were murdered is against the death penalty, and actually wrote the court a letter recommending life in prison without parole for the murderer of her relatives. The killer got life in prison without parole. </p>
<p>My friend said that she couldn’t do to the murderer’s family what he had done to her family.</p>
<p>Amy Bishop has 4 children. Yes, Amy Bishop killed some children’s parents, but it’s not right to impose the same sentence on her own innocent children – ranging from grade school to high school age-- who already are being punished because of their mother’s heinous actions.</p>
<p>
Research Kenneth McDuff - he killed many people after being released after his first death sentence was commuted, but as far as we know, hasn’t killed anyone after his second death sentence was carried out. And he’s not the only one. Promise not to post any more in this thread since it’s being hijacked to something else.</p>
<p>Great. Gun Control and Death Penalty. Now there’s no way this thread can stay here.</p>
<p>Yes. I think this should be moved to the Election and Politics forum which I decided not to participate in any longer.
Let’s keep the Parents Forum for issues that have to do with education. </p>
<p>Moderators: WHERE ARE YOU???</p>
<p>If there was a coverup years ago, everyone who participated bears some responsibility for the deaths and injuries in Alabama.</p>
<p>I feel very sorry for Amy Bishop’s husband and kids who will have to live their lives forever under the shadow of knowing that their loved one did something so heinous, and therefore being rejected by or gossiped about by others.</p>
<p>Horrible as it is for the people whose loved ones were murdered by Amy Bishop, I think it is even worse having a family member do such a deed. </p>
<p>I have a friend whose father died in prison after being an infamous hit man. She’s in her 50s and still is deeply ashamed of her father and of her background even though she herself hasn’t been in trouble with the law.</p>
<p>I don’t believe the thread needs to be moved. This is an educational issue as it was a prof at a college. The gun laws and death penalty are natural parts of this conversation. I think posters can keep it relevant to the subject at hand.</p>
<p>It will be interesting to watch this story develop now that the fact that she shot her brother to death has been exposed.</p>
<p>Whether or not Amy Bishop is sane or not, if it is adjudicated that she did indeed pull the trigger (100% probability given the reported information), it is entirely clear that she should never walk the streets again. Whether that is a prison or a mental facility is up to those with a greater understanding of the specifics to determine. </p>
<p>Clearly she is dangerous to anyone around her.</p>
<p>My sympathies to those affected.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I completely disagree. I have close relative who was the victim of a very violent crime. He lived to tell his story, but was given a 5% chance of making it through the night it happened. It has taken a long time to heal. It has been a long long road that no person, and no family should have to travel. Had he died, we would be visiting a grave. Amy’s family can still talk to her, write to her, and visit a living person.</p>
<p>But they will now be visiting a living person in jail and have the added guilt that their actions eventually led to the deaths of three innocent people!</p>