Unabomber Deal Serves Justice

Theodore Kaczynski’s guilty plea Thursday to charges that he is the Unabomber averted a trial that was best not begun. As part of the deal, presented in a federal court in Sacramento, Kaczynski pleaded guilty to all federal charges against him in return for a life sentence in prison without parole. The agreement is far preferable to the long and expensive trial that undoubtedly would have occurred.

The Unabomber was accused of building bombs that killed three people in a series of crimes that lasted 18 years; 29 people were injured. Conviction on any of those three murders--two in California and one in New Jersey--could have brought Kaczynski the death penalty.

By pleading guilty to 13 federal counts, the math-professor-turned-hermit avoids the death penalty, but that’s about all he gained in the deal. Had he decided to go to trial he would have had a good chance of cheating the executioner even if he had been found guilty.

A court-ordered psychiatric examination last week found that the 55-year-old defendant, although competent to stand trial, suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. Given that finding and the ample evidence about Kaczynski’s mental state that defense lawyers would surely have introduced, jurors might have balked at imposing the death sentence in the wake of a guilty verdict. The psychiatric assessment also made it uncertain that any death sentence would actually have been carried out. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno reportedly saw the finding as a basis for reversing her decision to seek the death penalty.

With Kaczynski’s guilty plea, the victims, the nation and federal prosecutors should gain some satisfaction. His admission that he committed these horrific crimes should bring a measure of solace to the Unabomber’s surviving victims and the families of victims. His incarceration--in prison rather than in a mental hospital as Kaczynski reportedly sought--will keep him safely locked away for life. Moreover, federal prosecutors and taxpayers save the millions of dollars a Sacramento trial and, later, a federal trial in New Jersey on other charges would have cost.

The Sacramento County district attorney’s office Thursday was examining the law to see whether Kaczynski could still be prosecuted by the state. Not only would this be unwise, it is unlikely. The federal deal appears to preclude separate trials by California and New Jersey on state charges. With Thursday’s developments, the Unabomber’s reign of terror is over and justice has been served.