Accused UAH shooter Amy Bishop in court today; trial date could be set

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama 
Accused UAH shooter Amy Bishop is scheduled to make her first court appearance in 18 months today, and a date for her capital murder trial is expected to be set by Circuit Judge Alan Mann.

Amy Bishop

The hearing at 9 a.m. on the eighth floor of the Madison County Courthouse will be open to the public.
Bishop is facing capital murder charges for the Feb. 12, 2010, shooting deaths of three colleagues at the University of Alabama in Huntsville during a meeting of the biology faculty. She is also charged with attempted murder in the shootings of three other UAH employees at the same meeting.
The Harvard-trained biologist and mother of four was indicted in March. The shootings have drawn national attention and wrongful death lawsuits, and led to the reopening of the investigation into Bishop's brother's shooting death in 1986.
Prosecutors have indicated they intend to seek the death penalty. If Bishop is convicted of capital murder, she would face either life in prison without parole or the death penalty.
Last month, Mann ordered the hearing that will include the procedural step of a formal reading of the charges against Bishop. She is represented by court-appointed attorneys Barry Abston and Roy Miller, both of Huntsville. Bishop is expected to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
The case is being prosecuted by Madison County District Attorney Rob Broussard, who will be assisted by prosecutors Tim Gann and Maggie Wallace.
Attorneys and other law enforcement personnel are under a gag order in the case. Mann also sealed the case file from public view in late May.
The judge is expected to rule Thursday on a number of motions in the case, but given the sealed case file it is unknown what he is being asked to do or why. Mann sealed the file after a request by Bishop's attorneys.
Bishop is charged with killing Dr. Maria Ragland Davis, Dr. Adriel Johnson and biology department chair Dr. Gopi Podila. She is also charged with attempting to kill Dr. Joseph Leahy and Dr. Luis Cruz-Vera, biology faculty members, and staff assistant Stephanie Monticciolo. Leahy and Monticciolo were severely wounded; Cruz-Vera returned to work shortly after the shootings.
Bishop is also charged with the 1986 murder of her brother, Seth, in Braintree, Mass. The shooting originally had been ruled an accident, but after the UAH slayings, prosecutors in Massachusetts reopened that case, and a grand jury indicted Bishop for murder.