Defense has few cards to play
By Paul Ferguson
Special to CNN Interactive
(CNN) -- The central question of the trial of
Theodore Kaczynski is fairly clear: Is he insane? Is he accountable?
To neighbors in the tiny hamlet of Lincoln, Montana, Ted Kaczynski was a
friendly, slightly eccentric man who didn't own a car and lived by himself
in the forest outside town.
But his writings portray a man who lived deep among tormented and maniacal
thoughts about a modern technology which he believed was a spreading rot,
destroying society.
His defense will argue that he is deranged, suffers from paranoid
schizophrenia, not capable of rational judgments or actions.
Kaczynski is accused of being the bizarre but deadly Unabomber, the mastermind
behind at least 16 bombing attacks between May 1978 and April 1995. Three
of the bombs killed, and several other people were maimed.
The Unabomber taunted authorities with long missives about his
anti-technology agenda. He apparently wanted society to return to the era
before electric power and aircraft. He also apparently believed that mail
bombs, mostly to universities and airlines, could lead to a massive
uprising against technology.
The evidence that Kaczynski built and planted bombs is expected to be
overwhelming. Materials recovered from his Montana cabin include meticulous
notes describing his activities, a live bomb, and schematic diagrams
detailing his experiments with explosives.
The FBI also found in his cabin three typewriters and a 35,000-word magnus opus
that was typed on them, titled "Industrial Society and its Future." The work seeks
to explain why industrial society must be overthrown, and mirrors a document published
by the New York Times and the Washington Post at the Unabomber's direction.
The expected insanity plea will raise some tough questions about the
legal qualification for lunacy.
Kaczynski's thoughts, as he recorded them in his diaries and notes,
often meander from logical, considered ideas into irrational babble.
Footnotes in "Industrial Society and its Future" cite weighty-sounding
tomes such as "Chinese Political Thought in the Twentieth Century" and
articles from Scientific American and Omni magazines.
They also contain detailed, solipsistic observations about other people he
apparently believed share his revulsion of technology.
"The trouble is that many of the people who are inclined to rebel against
the industrial system are also concerned about population problems," he
writes. "Hence they are apt to have few or no children."
Insanity pleas have seen less use in federal courts since Congress
changed the law in 1984 to make an innocent-due-to-insanity verdict more
difficult. The change followed the public outcry over the innocent verdict
for would-be presidential assassin John Hinckley, who was captured on film
firing bullets at President Reagan and his entourage.
Proof of insanity may not save Kaczynski from a conviction, but under current
federal law it could save him from the death penalty.
Despite the remarkable match between the FBI's profile of the Unabomber,
based on the attacks, the bomb making and on Kaczynski's statements and
lifestyle, the government did not conduct a psychological evaluation after his
arrest.
During pretrial motions, Judge Gregory Hollows expressed surprise at the FBI's
oversight, and in the weeks before the trial prosecutors attempted to send experts
to examine Kaczynski, but he steadfastly refused to participate.
Less than two weeks before jury selection is scheduled to begin, prosecutors asked
the judge to throw out the defense's insanity argument unless Kaczynski agrees to
an examination. But the defense argued that the prosecutors had several months to
prepare their strategy, and that the last-minute testing request was unfair.
Earlier attempts by the defense to bar evidence from Kaczynski's cabin were dismissed,
as was a motion to eliminate the death penalty as a possible option.
Kaczynski will be tried at federal court in Sacramento for the bombings that
took place in California. He also faces trial for the bombing death of a New
Jersey man.
In either court, Kaczynski's own words may be some of the strongest evidence
against him.
"Until the power of the industrial system has been thoroughly wrecked, the
destruction of that system must be the revolutionaries ONLY goal."
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