Kaczynski Stops the Trial

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SACRAMENTO: The jurors in the trial of suspected Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski were dismissed for the day, four minutes after taking their seats -- and without hearing any of the opening arguments. Instead Judge Garland Burrell Jr. met privately with Kaczynski after the accused said he wanted to make a statement. Few details about their meeting emerged, but Kaczynski may want his brother, David, out of the courtroom.

The trial promises to be as much a spectacle as the preceding manhunt. Prosecutors, confident of a conviction and seeking the death penalty, have turned down a deal in which the mathematician-turned-hermit would plead guilty and serve life without parole.

The bedraggled defense team, meanwhile, may now offer a "stealth" psychiatric defense. By emphasizing the most bizarre aspects of their client's life and alleged bombing campaign -- even putting Kaczynski himself on the stand -- they will be priming jurors to believe what the accused has forbidden his lawyers from claiming aloud: that Theodore Kaczynski is insane.