Word: mental
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...after 18 years, 200 suspects, thousands of interviews and one of the longest, most expensive manhunts in FBI history, is making him sit down and shut up. Theodore Kaczynski, lonely hermit, brilliant sociopath, murderous wood carver, has been fighting with his lawyers for months. They wanted to mount a mental-illness defense; he wanted no part of it. Kaczynski made it clear that he would do anything, even fire his attorneys, to keep them from portraying him as a "sickie...
...last week his team had agreed to skip the mental-illness defense during the trial so long as the lawyers could pull it out in the penalty phase to help avoid a death sentence. They planned to show jurors photos of the ripe, shaggy hermit at the time of his arrest and offer a tour of the creepy cabin, which has been trucked in as evidence, all to give jurors an idea of the life-style of the man on trial. Burrell overruled Kaczynski's objections to this plan on the grounds that the lawyers, not the client, should...
...done surprising the court. It seems that San Francisco defense attorney J. Tony Serra had faxed the court an offer to represent Kaczynski for free if he could fire his attorneys. In a phone call just before court reconvened, Serra told Kaczynski he would not use a mental-illness defense. "I would like to be represented by him," Kaczynski announced to the stunned audience. Judge Burrell denied the motion on the grounds that it was too late in the trial to bring in a new lawyer and give him time to prepare. Kaczynski accepted the decision with equanimity. He just...
...seated, Clarke stood up. "Mr. Kaczynski has a request that we alert the court to on his behalf," she said quietly. "He believes that he has no choice but to go forward as his own lawyer. It is a very heartfelt reaction, I believe, to the presentation of a mental-illness defense, a situation in which he simply cannot endure...
...reopen plea-bargain talks in the first place? The answer lies in the words of defense attorney Judy Clarke, who told the court last week that Kaczynski was "in a situation ... which he simply cannot endure." He's not alone. If the defendant cannot endure a mental illness defense, then the defense team cannot endure the defendant, and the prosecution cannot endure the whole embarrassing circus. Sooner or later, somebody's got to give...