Ex-prof gets life in prison for meeting rampage

( PTA meetings just aren’t what they used to be. )

By JAY REEVES, APHUNTSVILLE, Ala. — 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. Prosecutors have said they would wait until after sentencing in the Alabama case to determine whether to put Bishop on trial in Massachusetts.

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.

Zimbabwe: Bulawayo urges all to flush together

( and who says there can’t be peaceful co-operation when the poo is deep enough? Just goes to show that people can put aside differences of faith, economics, race and gender when drawn together by a common cause.)

By GILLIAN GOTORA, APHARARE, Zimbabwe — Bulawayo city officials Monday urged all residents to join the "big flush" to help Zimbabwe's second city clear toilet waste that accumulated in sewers during days of water outages.

Bulawayo city spokesperson Nesisa Mpofu asked all residents to flush their toilets simultaneously at 7:30 p.m. (17.30 GMT) twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. She said a new timetable was issued Monday.

She said residents can also flush at other times. Many householders had mistakenly thought they could only flush on Monday and Thursday evenings.

"What kind of country would that be" if toilets were allowed to lie stagnant for days? Mpofu asked.

Mpofu said synchronized flushing will help move waste in the "old and overburdened" sanitation system, worsened by a growing urban population, water shortages and a troubled economy.

"Our sewer system has become vulnerable and we don't have enough water," Mpofu said.

Civic activist groups on Monday however criticized the proposed solution by city authorities as "ridiculous."

Magondonga Mahlangu, a leader of WOZA, an activist organization that champions women's issues and protests against the nation's poor service, told The Associated Press that the council's proposed "big flush" is an insult to people's dignity.

Mahlangu said city authorities needed to look at fixing the aging water and sewer pipes which have not been replaced in years. Zimbabwe had world record inflation before the formation in 2009 of a coalition government between longtime President Robert Mugabe and the former opposition leader Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

"It just goes to show that someone in the council has lost touch with the real issues on the ground and is failing to deal with real problems," Mahlangu said.

She said Bulawayo residents have enough challenges in their day-to-day lives including unemployment and trying to put food on the table for their families without being further asked to remember to flush their toilets at a certain time.

"It's not like people have nothing better to do," said Mahlangu.

Bulawayo residents interviewed by the AP on Monday still claim they have not been informed of the order. One resident said he only got to know about it when he read a news article on the internet which many residents can't access.

Zibusiso Dube, spokesman for Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association, said his group welcomed any plan to reduce the number of sewer bursts in the provincial capital of more than 1 million people. But he said city authorities need to communicate directly with the people because most residents were poor and can't afford to buy newspapers.

Water shortages and frequent sewer pipe bursts in Zimbabwe's main cities have led to the outbreak of diseases such as typhoid and cholera. More than 4,000 people died of cholera in the southern African nation in 2008 at the height of political turmoil and economic meltdown.

"It will be good for people to follow council orders," said Dube. "People must be tired of burst sewers."