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If Bill Delahunt had done his job, three Alabama families wouldn’t be in mourning today. Period. If then-Norfolk District Attorney Delahunt, his staff or the police hadn’t been negligent, corrupt or both back in 1986, Amy Bishop would have been prosecuted for killing her brother. Based on what we know now - and what investigators knew then - probably some charge of manslaughter. But at the very least, Bishop probably would have had a felony gun conviction on her record, teaching her a tragic personal lesson. Instead, the political culture of Massachusetts taught her something very different: It’s not what...

An Alabama college professor accused of killing three colleagues during a faculty meeting is likely insane, and she can't remember the shootings, her attorney said. Roy W. Miller, the court-appointed attorney for Amy Bishop, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday that his client has severe mental problems that appear to be paranoid schizophrenia. Miller discussed the case hours after hundreds of mourners attended the first funeral and memorial services for Bishop's slain co-workers.

Federal law enforcement officials did not send Amy Bishop and her husband a letter telling them they were cleared in the 1993 mail bombing investigation of a Harvard Medical School professor, an official said today, contradicting statements Bishop's husband has made to the media since his wife was charged in an Alabama shooting rampage. "No letter was ever sent,'' said the law enforcement official, who is not authorized to speak publicly on the case. Bishop's husband, James Anderson, has acknowledged the couple were both questioned by federal investigators after a package containing two pipe bombs was sent to the Newton...

The Norfolk district attorney ramped up his criticism of the 1986 investigation of Seth Bishop’s death yesterday, saying that it was “glaring’’ and “striking’’ that local police accounts of Amy Bishop’s armed standoff at a local business were not included in the State Police report or considered as part of the prosecutor’s decision about whether to pursue charges.

Bill Delahunt, come on down! The only question is, does he permanently adjourn to Hedonism II now, or in 2012? It’s like a logging forest out there for congressional Democrats these days. Timber! First Chris Dodd falls, then Patches Kennedy, not to mention a whole host of lesser-known Beltway banditos. They’re all retiring due to ill health - the voters are sick of them. The question now is the same one they ask at the deli counter. Who’s next? Consider why Delahunt might want to call it a career. First, he’s already got a state pension - $58,343.76 a year....

US Representative William Delahunt said yesterday that he is considering retiring from his congressional seat representing the South Shore and Cape Cod, although he portrayed his deliberations as routine and said they are not related to challenges from Republicans who are energized by Scott Brown’s upset victory in last month’s special Senate election.

<p>TEL AVIV, Israel—A U.S. congressman says he's seeking clarification from Israel after an apparent snub by a top Foreign Ministry official. Rep. William Delahunt of Massachusetts is touring the region with a congressional delegation hosted by J Street, a liberal Jewish lobbying group that describes itself as pro-Israel and pro-peace.</p>

Amy Bishop was crouched behind a parked car, gripping a pump-action shotgun with one shell in the chamber and another in her pocket. Workers at a nearby business were yelling, “There’s a girl with a gun!’’ and running away. A police officer approached cautiously, holding his pistol behind his leg as he tried to reason with the wild-eyed 21-year-old. But Bishop would not budge. “Miss Bishop seemed frightened, disoriented, and confused, but she kept both her hands on the shotgun at all times,’’ the officer wrote in a police report. “She wouldn’t drop the gun.’’ It wasn’t until another officer...

Nobody needs another investigation into whether Amy Bishop killed her brother by accident or on purpose when she fired a shotgun into his chest on Dec. 6, 1986. Bishop could have been tried, DA says Report: Bishop held shotgun on police after killing brother The families of the three dead faculty members in Alabama will attest that it’s too late for that now. What we need, though, immediately, is for the governor to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate whether local and state authorities were corrupt or completely incompetent in the way they rushed to exonerate Bishop of criminal responsibility...

Cites actions that followed brother’s death Amy Bishop could have been charged with three serious crimes after she shot her younger brother to death in 1986, instead of being allowed to walk away without a mark on her criminal record, Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating said yesterday as he released Braintree police records missing for more than 20 years. snip......Attempts to reach US Representative William D. Delahunt, who was Norfolk district attorney at the time, were unsuccessful yesterday.

One of the survivors of Friday's deadly shooting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville said she tried to talk Amy Bishop into putting the gun down. "The first thing I said was, 'Amy, think about my grandson, think about my daughter," Dr. Debra Moriarity, UAH's graduate school dean and a member of the biology faculty, said today. "I said, 'Amy, you know I've helped you, I'll help you again. It's me, it's me." "Part of my brain thought she'd go, 'Oh, it's Deb,' and she'd quit." But Moriarity said Bishop, an assistant professor, never responded. So Moriarity crawled through...

U.S. Rep. and former Norfolk District Attorney William Delahunt yesterday backed off earlier claims he didn’t recall the 1986 shooting death of Amy Bishop’s brother, with a top aide now saying police downplayed the need for further investigation. Mark Forest, Delahunt’s chief of staff, said both state and local police told the former top prosecutor they believed Amy Bishop, then 20, had accidentally blasted her 18-year-old brother, Seth, with their father’s shotgun. “They pretty much found the death was accidental and there was no need for further action,” Forest told the Herald. But Republican Joe Malone, a former state treasurer...

Sure looks like a lot of the Democrat incumbents have seen the handwriting on the wall, and have realized that their days in Congress are numbered. They have been weighed in the balances by their constituents, and are found wanting. As a result, Democrat incumbents are dropping like flies. The latest? Illinois Sen. Evan Bayh,who joins Patches Kennedy of RI, Chris Dodd of CT, and Sen. Byron Dorgan of ND in unexpected retirement. Next on the list could be my own representative, William Delahunt of Massachusetts, who, after Scott Brown swept to a Senate victory last month, and amid some...

Saturday's Boston Globe reported that Congressman William Delahunt may not run for reelection. "US Representative William Delahunt said yesterday that he is considering retiring from his congressional seat representing the South Shore and Cape Cod, although he portrayed his deliberations as routine and said they are not related to challenges from Republicans who are energized by Scott Brown's upset victory in last month's special Senate election. 'Every election cycle, I take my time, I think it through, and I think, not about whether I can win or lose, but: ‘Am I in a position to make a difference?' Delahunt, a...

UPDATE, 6:15 P.M.: An unbylined 11:57 a.m. AP report (i.e., 54 minutes after the time stamp of the original post at BizzyBlog) contains two paragraphs about Delahunt's involvement. Based on a search on Delahunt's last name at about 6:15 p.m., this version of AP's report is either still not at its main site, or has not been indexed by its search engine. Democratic Congressman Bill Delahunt's far from minor role in the 1986 release of Amy Bishop, the University of Alabama in Hunstville biology professor implicated in the murder of three colleagues on Friday, has garnered significant press attention in...

""Amy further stated that she does not recall putting any additional bullets into the gun after it discharged, and that she then unscrewed the bottom of the shaft in an attempt to empty the weapon, and when being unable to empty the weapon this way, she stated that she then screwed the bottom of the shaft back on." Amy stated that she then heard her brother come into the house downstairs ( But the cover up State Police officer accepted that Judy Bishop couldn't hear a shotgun blast upstairs???)and she went right downstairs to ask Seth to help her unload...

The professor who is accused of killing three colleagues at the University of Alabama on Friday was a suspect in the attempted mail bombing of a Harvard Medical School professor in 1993, a law enforcement official said today. Bishop surfaced as a suspect because she was allegedly concerned that she was going to receive a negative evaluation from Rosenberg on her doctorate work, the official said. The official said investigators believed she had a motive to target Rosenberg and were concerned that she had a history of violence, given that she had shot her brother to death in 1986.

US Representative William Delahunt said yesterday that he is considering retiring from his congressional seat representing the South Shore and Cape Cod, although he portrayed his deliberations as routine and said they are not related to challenges from Republicans who are energized by Scott Brown’s upset victory in last month’s special Senate election. Discuss COMMENTS (150) Related Photos Kennedys in public life Pondering a Congress without Kennedys McGrory: With iconic father gone, son seeks his own path Colleagues ponder Kennedy’s future, praise work ethic Rep. Kennedy lacked ‘fire’ for another race Kennedy out, R.I. voters say change is in the...

Joseph Kennedy III, the son of former congressman Joe Kennedy, is being tipped to launch a political career soon as insiders mull over who the next Kennedy in public life will be. Kennedy, 29, may be interested in the South Shore-Cape Cod House seat currently held by Democratic Congressman Bill Delahunt, who has not yet committed to a tough re-election fight. “Massachusetts – and Capitol Hill – without a Kennedy is like Fenway Park without the Wall,’’ Dan Payne, a Democratic media consultant, referring to the famous Green Monster told the Boston Globe. “They were meant to be together.’’ Others...

A poll commissioned by likely GOP congressional challenger Joseph D. Malone shows he’s neck and neck with U.S. Rep. William Delahunt as Scott Brown fever continues to grip Bay State voters. Malone of Scituate commissioned the poll that has him with 37 percent of the vote to the Democratic incumbent’s 34 percent with a 5.7 percent margin of error. “I’m very encouraged by it,” Malone said. “My sense is that the voters of the district are people who recognize Delahunt has been following (House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi’s policies and are sick of it.” The former state treasurer’s lead widened to...