New twist in prosecution of University of Alabama shooter's case

(CBS News) Tuesday will mark three years since a shooting on the campus of the University of Alabama Huntsville left three biology professors dead. Their colleague, neurobiologist Amy Bishop, eventually pleaded guilty to the killings and is serving a life sentence for the murders.

She waved her right for an appeal after pleading guilty, but Bishop now says she intends to do just that, and a judge is giving her until Monday to file an appeal in a case that keeps getting stranger

The day after Bishop was taken into custody, the Huntsville Sheriff's Department received a phone call from a police chief more than 1,000 miles away in Braintree, Mass.

In this week's New Yorker Magazine, Chief Paul Frazier recalled what he told the Alabama authorities. "The woman you have in custody, I thought you'd want to know: she shot and killed her brother back in 1986," he said.

Bishop was 21 years old when she shot her 18-year-old brother Seth in the chest with her father's shotgun. Sam Bishop had purchased the weapon after a robbery at the family's home. The only witness to the shooting, Amy's mother Judy Bishop, claimed it was an accident. The police quickly released Bishop and closed the case.

Two months after the shooting in Alabama, William Keating, the district attorney in Norfolk, Mass., said that the investigation into Seth Bishop's death was reopened, and Amy Bishop was indicted by the grand jury for murder in first degree of her brother.

"Frankly if I was those families in Alabama, I'd be furious, thinking what could have been, might have been avoided," said Keating.

Ultimately a lack of evidence forced Massachusetts prosecutors to drop the case against Bishop, who continues to serve a life sentence in Alabama.

For Rebecca Jarvis' full report, watch the video in the player above.