Prosecutors Seek New Samples of Unabomber Suspect’s Handwriting

Federal prosecutors said Wednesday they have a “bona fide need” for new handwriting samples from Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski, beyond the scores of letters to his brother already in the government’s possession.

The U.S. attorney’s office said it needs newly written examples of Kaczynski’s printing and writing to compare with materials seized at his Montana cabin, where Kaczynski was arrested April 3.

The defense has acknowledged “that the defendant wrote 152 letters that the government obtained from the defendant’s brother, David . . . [but] the defendant has not offered to stipulate that he wrote the documents seized from his cabin,” prosecutors wrote. “The stipulation does not establish that the defendant wrote the documents at issue,” they added.

Kaczynski, 54, has pleaded not guilty to four Unabomber attacks that killed two people a decade apart in Sacramento. He also pleaded not guilty to charges that he mailed a package bomb that killed an advertising executive in New Jersey.

A hearing was scheduled for next Thursday in Sacramento before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gregory Hollows on the prosecutors’ request, which was filed Jan. 17. Defense lawyers opposed the request, and Wednesday the prosecution responded to the defense’s arguments.

Federal defenders Quin Denvir and Judy Clarke said Feb. 13 that providing handwriting samples was “unduly burdensome and unreasonable” and would take several days.

“The government already possesses over 800 pages of handwritten letters by Mr. Kaczynski. They are better than he could now produce because they were written closer in time to the time at which the cabin documents are believed to have been written,” Clarke and Denvir said in a brief filed in U.S. District Court.

But prosecutors said obtaining the new samples would “consume no more than several hours” spread over several days.