A former college professor who killed three people and wounded three others during a faculty meeting wanted to go to death row and had to be convinced by her parents to accept a plea deal that spared her life, her lawyer said Tuesday.
Amy Bishop, 47, didn't want to live among other inmates because she was terrified of being sexually abused in Alabama's lone women's prison, defense attorney Roy Miller told The Associated Press.
"She wanted to die," he said. Bishop also didn't want to "live in a chicken coop the rest of her life," he said.
A judge sentenced Bishop, a Harvard-educated biologist, to life without parole Monday after jurors convicted her during an abbreviated trial. She pleaded guilty earlier this month, but state law required a trial because she admitted to a capital murder charge.
