Plea hearing set for ex-prof charged in shootings

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — A judge has scheduled a hearing to change the plea of a former professor accused of fatally shooting three colleagues and wounding three others at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Court officials say Amy Bishop was due in court Tuesday afternoon for a hearing before Madison County Circuit Judge Alan Mann.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against the Harvard-educated Bishop. A guilty plea could result in a life sentence but court officials couldn’t confirm that’s what she planned to do.

The former biology professor previously pleaded innocent in the February 2010 shooting at a faculty meeting. Her attorneys say she had mental problems.

Bishop also is charged with killing her brother in Massachusetts in 1986. That shooting was originally ruled accidental, but the Alabama slayings prompted a new investigation and charges.