Kaczynski admits he is Unabomber, sentenced to life without parole

Kaczynski

'You wish to change your plea?'

'Yes, your honor'

January 22, 1998
Web posted at: 6:57 p.m. EST (2357 GMT)

SACRAMENTO, California (CNN) - Theodore Kaczynski pleaded guilty Thursday to being the Unabomber in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Kaczynski, the 55-year-old math professor turned woodland hermit, formally entered the plea at a hearing Thursday afternoon in Sacramento federal district court.

"You wish to change your plea?" Kaczynski was asked in court by U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell Jr., introducing a plea deal between government prosecutors and the defense.

"Yes, your honor," Kaczynski replied.

Kaczynski appeared confident and respectful during the hearing.

Asked what his occupation was, he said, "My occupation, I suppose, is jail inmate." He then explained that he was once a college professor.

No possibility of parole

The plea bargain was announced earlier in Washington by Justice Department officials, and accepted by Burrell.

Kaczynski was charged in Sacramento with four bombings in 1985, 1993 and 1995 that killed two people and maimed two. But the plea bargain resolves all federal charges against him -- including those filed in New Jersey -- growing out of the 17-year string of 16 bombings that killed three people and injured 29.

The terms of the agreement stipulated that Kaczynski did plead guilty to the deaths of all three men killed by letter bombs he mailed.

In return for a guarantee that he will not be executed, Kaczynski agreed to accept life in prison or a federal psychiatric facility without the possibility of parole.

As part of the plea agreement, the government is requiring that Kaczynski's future earnings go to pay restitution to the families of his victims.

During his court appearance, Kaczynski appeared to be alert and aware, and at one point corrected the judge as he read part of the agreement aloud.

The agreement spares Kaczynski not only the death penalty -- the evidence that he was the Unabomber was overwhelming from the beginning -- but it also enables him to avoid being portrayed in court as a madman, something he vehemently opposed.

It also allows the prosecution to avoid giving the impression that it was trying to execute a man who is mentally ill.

The plea deal came moments before opening statements were set to begin in Sacramento federal district court.

Burrell called in the jury at 10 a.m. and released them about 15 minutes later, asking them to return Friday. He said he was releasing the jury because prosecution and defense attorneys had asked jointly "to conduct additional proceedings."

Minutes later, Justice Department officials in Washington announced the plea bargain.

A deadly campaign against technology

Lawyers on both sides and Judge Burrell conferred as Kaczynski looked on

Kaczynski, a one-time math professor at the University of California, Berkeley, waged an 17-year "anti-technology" bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 29.

The shaggy-haired hermit entered Harvard University at age 16. He succeeded at mathematics but failed to socialize with his classmates or function within society.

He quit a tenure-track position at Berkeley in 1969 to build a cabin near Lincoln, Montana, and lived there without running water or electricity for more than 20 years.

At one point, he was able to force newspapers to print his 35,000-word manifesto, which denounced technology and the destruction of the environment. Its similarity to letters he sent to his family alerted his brother David, who made the painful decision to turn his brother in.

Kaczynski was arrested at his cabin in April 1996.

Three false starts

A plea bargain had been discussed for months but was repeatedly turned down by the government because Kaczynski insisted on certain conditions -- among them, that he would retain certain rights on appeal and that he would not be put in a federal mental hospital.

The Kaczynski trial had three false starts, and Burrell said Thursday he blamed Kaczynski for manipulating the criminal-justice process.

After an apparent suicide attempt in his jail cell two weeks ago, Kaczynski asked the judge to allow him to fire his attorneys and take over his own defense. Kaczynski agreed to undergo tests by a federal psychiatrist, Dr. Sally Johnson, to prove he was mentally competent to defend himself.

While Johnson concluded that Kaczynski was mentally competent, she also diagnosed him as a paranoid schizophrenic. Those who suffer from the illness are prone to violence and delusions.

It was upon learning Tuesday of Johnson's diagnosis -- which confirmed what Kaczynski's attorneys had long contended -- that negotiations for a plea bargain reopened.

Meanwhile, Burrell asked both sides to file motions regarding the timeliness of Kaczynski's request to defend himself. The judge said his own feeling was that Kaczynski had waited too long to make the request, and that he was inclined to start the trial Thursday, as scheduled.

But the defense and prosecution attorneys both disagreed with Burrell, saying they thought Kaczynski's request was timely and based on his misunderstanding of his lawyers intentions.

In denying Kaczynski's request to represent himself Thursday morning, Burrell accused Kaczynski of manipulating the court system by "consistently and unequivocally" trying to delay the trial.

"It is an obvious attempt by him to purposely delay the proceedings," Burrell said. "It is unacceptable. It is patently unreasonable."

But after announcing that they would no longer attempt to introduce expert witnesses to testify about Kaczynski's mental state, it was not clear what kind of defense Kaczynski's attorneys would have attempted had the plea bargain failed.

Kaczynski indicated that he wanted to base his defense on his belief that technology is destroying humanity.

Correspondent Greg Lefevre, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report

Kaczynski Profile   |   Evidence Bin   |   Unabomber's Trail   |   Daily Trial Transcripts

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