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September 27, 2012

Amy Bishop escorted by policemen
Amy Bishop

Former Alabama Professor Sentenced to Life in Prison for Killing Two Black Colleagues

A jury sentenced to life in prison without parole a Harvard University educated professor who shot and killed two of her black colleagues during a February 2010 staff meeting at the University of Alabama.

Dr. Adriel D. Johnson, Sr.
Dr. Adriel D. Johnson, Sr.
On Monday, the jury deliberated 20 minutes before sentencing Amy Bishop, a former biology professor at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, for the shooting deaths of Dr. Adriel D. Johnson, Sr., associate professor of biological science, Dr. Maria Ragland Davis, associate professor of biological science, and G.K. Padila, chairman of the department of biological sciences. Davis and Johnson are African American, and Padila is a native of India.

Bishop went on a shooting rampage that also wounded three others because she believed the department was going to deny her tenure.

Dr. Maria Ragland Davis
Dr. Maria Ragland Davis
Bishop pled guilty to the murders to avoid the death sentence.

Under Alabama law, a jury must decide Bishop’s fate because murder is a capital offense. Jury selection began on Monday and prosecutors recommended that the 47-year-old Bishop serve life in prison without parole.

Following the Alabama shootings, Braintree, Mass., law-enforcement officials charged Bishop with the 1986 shooting death of her teenage brother. Police originally ruled that the shooting was accidental.

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