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Unabomber Trial
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United States v. Kaczynski (1998)
Sebastian Baracaldo
United States v. Kaczynski (1998)
"The Unabomber Trial"
The FBI set up the "UNABOM Task Force", named after his bombings at universities and airlines, and that’s where the name "Unabomber" came from.
Kaczynski was a student at Harvard University and the University of Michigan before his crimes.
(A manifesto is a written public declaration)
Case Facts
Case Background
Ted Kaczynski, infamously known as the Unabomber was charged for bombings in Sacramento and New Jersey that killed 3 people over the course of 17 years from 1978 to 1995 while being chased by the FBI.
Kaczynski committed these crimes for socio-political reasons, making the Washington Post and the New York Times publish a self-written manifesto against technology.
Kaczynski built every bomb and mailed or hand delivered them in packages to his victims.
Kaczynski's bomb design
Bombs made by Ted Kaczynski injured many other victims, including a police officer from Illinois and a Yale computer scientist.
GUILTY
Case Results
Kaczynski pleaded guilty to all charges on January 22, 1998 in a courtroom in Sacramento, California.
He appealed in 2001 because of a violated 1975 Supreme Court precedent, which said that a sane defendant has a constitutional right to self-representation under the 6th amendment.
His request for a new trial was rejected because he entered his plea voluntarily.
This was a very famous case, as many documentaries and books have been made about the Unabomber. Although making headlines across the nation, the Unabomber Trial has not been used as a precedent for future cases.
Police sketch of the Unabomber
Kaczynski’s lawyers wanted to argue that he was not capable of Mens Rea because he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, but Kaczynski did not want to be labeled "mentally ill."
Relevant Information
Other Information
Prosecutors offered the Unabomber a plea deal of life in prison, and he is currently held at the federal “Supermax” prison in Florence, Colorado.
The Unabomber’s manifesto led to his arrest, as his brother David gave a tip after recognizing the way he wrote.
David Kaczynksi provided past letters and documents written by Ted, and that evidence along with the FBI’s facts aligning with Ted’s life allowed probable cause for a search warrant of his house in Montana.
Kaczynski wrote a letter to the judge asking for self-representation instead of having lawyers. He had to be psychologically evaluated and was then diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. The judge declined his request.