DA Has No Plans to Bring Amy Bishop Back on Murder Charge

Braintree High School graduate Amy Bishop will likely remain in Alabama, serving a sentence of life in prison for the murders of three university colleagues, and not be brought to Massachusetts on the charge that she also murdered her brother in 1986.

Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey announced on Friday that he will not start rendition proceedings, saying that the sentence he would seek against Bishop for first degree murder "is already in place" as a result of an Alabama judge's decision earlier this month.

Bishop pled guilty to killing three colleagues and wounding three others during a meeting in 2010 at the University of Alabama. On Sept. 24, she was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.

“We will not move to have her returned to Massachusetts," Morrissey said in a statement. "By entering a nolle prosequi, the indictment is withdrawn without prejudice – meaning that if circumstances change, a prosecution could be initiated again.”

The DA's decision stemmed in part from discussions with District Attorney Robert Broussard in Alabama, Morrissey said.

He added that Norfolk County officials will most likely not take any additional action on the allegation that Bishop murdered her brother Seth in the Bishop family home in Braintree as long as her plea and sentence in Alabama "remain undisturbed."

“In almost all cases, guilty pleas mark the end of the process and the conviction is not vulnerable to being overturned on appeal,” Morrissey said. "And perhaps most importantly, with a life-without-parole sentence in place, there is not an issue of public safety.”