HUNTSVILLE, Ala.— Pale, thin and dressed in a red jail uniform, a Harvard University-educated biology professor pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to capital murder charges Thursday in the slayings of three colleagues killed during a faculty meeting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.
Amy Bishop, who was mostly silent during a hearing, looked down at a table as one of her lawyers entered the pleas on her behalf. She also pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to attempted murder charges in the shootings of three other colleagues who were wounded but survived.
Circuit Judge Alan Mann set Bishop’s trial for March 19 and told attorneys not to expect any delays.
Defense lawyer Roy Miller talked briefly with Bishop after the hearing before uniformed officers led her back to jail, where the mother of four is being held without bond.
“You ok?” asked Miller, who has described the woman as paranoid in media interviews.
“Yes,” Bishop replied quietly, her short black hair tucked behind her ears.
Bishop is accused of pulling a gun out of her purse and opening fire during a February 2010 faculty meeting, killing three professors and wounding three other colleagues. Police and people who knew Bishop have described her as being angry over the school’s refusal to grant her tenure, a decision that effectively would have ended her employment in the biology department at UAH.
