Kaczynski Flip-Flopped on Wish to Drop Attorneys

A tired and reluctant Theodore Kaczynski agreed to keep his lawyers, even though they insisted on a mental illness defense, only to change his mind the next day after an apparent suicide attempt, papers released Thursday show.

“Your Honor, if this had happened a year and a half ago, I would probably have elected to represent myself,” Kaczynski told U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. during a closed-door hearing in the jurist’s chambers last week. “Now, after a year and a half of this, I’m too tired, and I really don’t want to take on such a difficult task.”

Kaczynski’s lawyers, Quin Denvir and Judy Clarke, also attended the session.

“So far I don’t feel I’m up to taking that challenge at the moment, so I’m not going to elect to represent myself,” Kaczynski, 55, told Burrell.

Citing an apparent rift with his attorneys about his alleged mental problems, the Harvard-trained mathematician told Burrell: “I do not agree with counsel concerning major strategic decisions, but I’ve become aware that legally I have to accept those decisions whether I like them or not. So I guess I just have to accept them.”

The alleged Unabomber was then taken back to the Sacramento County Jail, where he apparently tried to hang himself with his underwear. The day after declining to be his own lawyer, Kaczynski changed his mind and brought the trial to a standstill with his demand to represent himself.

The glimpse into the defendant’s erratic thinking is contained in edited transcripts of the private meetings, released Thursday.

Burrell, too, seemed to be vacillating last week. The transcripts show that he said of Kaczynski before the alleged suicide attempt: “I find him to be lucid, calm. He presents himself in an intelligent manner. In my opinion, he has a keen understanding of the issues.”

But after learning of the apparent suicide bid, Burrell switched field and ordered that Kaczynski’s mental health be examined. A report from the appointed psychiatrist is due to be filed with the judge today.

The Montana hermit doesn’t want his attorneys to raise his alleged mental illness to defend him, but Burrell refused to let him fire his attorneys and hire a San Francisco lawyer who would mount a different defense based on Kaczynski’s anti-technology views.

On Thursday, prosecutors weighed in with what they think should be done if Kaczynski is found competent to stand trial.

In a document filed with the court, they said his lawyers should continue to represent him and “abide by the defendant’s wishes concerning the mental defect defense.” Burrell should compel defense lawyers Denvir and Clarke to do so, if they refuse, by threatening to use his civil contempt authority against them, prosecutors said.

In another development Thursday, U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno declined at a Washington press conference to say whether the results of Kaczynski’s mental health exam would change the Justice Department’s view about possible plea negotiations.

“We have to look at the report and make an appropriate determination based on that report,” she said.

Times staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow in Washington contributed to this story.