Mass. judge: Transcript of inquest into ‘86 killing of Ala. professor’s brother to stay sealed

Papers in Ala. prof’s inquest in Mass. stay sealed

BOSTON — A transcript and report from an inquest into the 1986 shooting death of the brother of Amy Bishop, a former professor, who is charged in a mass shooting in Alabama, will not be released publicly, a judge ruled Friday.

Norfolk Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Bowen Donovan rejected a request from the Globe Newspaper Co. Inc. to unseal the documents related to an inquest held to investigate the death of 18-year-old Seth Bishop.

Massachusetts authorities began reinvestigating Seth Bishop’s death after Amy Bishop was charged in a February shooting rampage at the University of Alabama-Huntsville. Amy Bishop, then a biology professor at the school, is accused of gunning down six colleagues, killing three.

A Massachusetts grand jury on Wednesday indicted Amy Bishop on a murder charge in her brother’s death, which had originally been ruled an accident.

Donovan cited a 1969 ruling from the state’s highest court that held that all inquests should be closed to the public and the news media.

Bishop had told police who investigated her brother’s death that she accidentally shot him while trying to unload her father’s 12-gauge shotgun in the family’s Braintree home.

After Quincy District Court Judge Mark Coven conducted an inquest in April, District Attorney William Keating convened a grand jury, which indicted her this week.

Federal authorities in Massachusetts also are reviewing their investigation into a 1993 attempted mail bombing in which Bishop and her husband were questioned.

Dr. Paul Rosenberg received two pipe bombs in a package mailed to his Newton home shortly after Bishop quit her job at Children’s Hospital following a poor review by Rosenberg. The bombs did not explode, and neither Bishop nor her husband was charged.

On Friday, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, responding to a Freedom of Information request from The Associated Press and other news organizations, released 68 pages of documents from its original investigation into the pipe bombing. The heavily redacted documents did not mention Bishop or her husband by name and appeared to shed no new light on the investigation.