SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Theodore Kaczynski admitted Thursday he is the anti-technology terrorist known as the Unabomber, pleading guilty in a deal with the government that will send him to prison for life.
The 55-year-old mathematics professor turned woodland hermit entered the plea in a mid-afternoon hearing, on the day a jury was to be sworn in and opening statements were to begin.
The agreement avoids the possibility of his execution. Had the jury convicted Kaczynski, he could have faced death by injection.
Dr. Sally Johnson, a Federal Bureau of Prisons psychiatrist, concluded that Kaczynski was competent to stand trial but suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, an illness marked by delusions and a potential for violence.
The agreement resolves all federal charges against Kaczynski growing out of the 17-year string of bombings that killed three people — two in the Sacramento area and one in New Jersey — and injured 29.
A plea bargain had been discussed for months, but was repeatedly turned down by the government because Kaczynski insisted on certain conditions. At the last minute, his lawyers dropped all demands.
After admitting to all of the charged offenses, Kaczynski then admitted his role in Unabomber attacks in which he had not been charged.
The agreement came shortly after U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell Jr. ruled that Kaczynski could not fire his court appointed lawyers and represent himself.
Kaczynski’s attorneys, Quin Denvir and Judy Clarke, had said their client could not endure a trial that would portray him as — in Kaczynski’s words — “a sickie.”
Kaczynski’s family has long argued that Ted was a paranoid schizophrenic. But he had adamantly resisted examination by government psychiatrists until last week.
He reversed course in a bid to prove he was competent to defend himself and dump his lawyers.