Subscribe to our newsletter. This past week we have seen the trial of Theodore Kaczynski, the reputed Unabomber, get derailed, as the question of his mental competence to stand trial became the focus of the case. Therefore, I have been following the news accounts of this case with more than passing interest. Theodore Kaczynski is said to exhibit many signs of being afflicted with a delusional paranoid schizophrenia. I know such people can be extremely intelligent, so much so that their rationality can seem to be literally overcome by the intensity of their very active minds.
Attorneys having to deal with such clients face an array of difficulties.
The client cannot or does not address the idea of guilt or innocence as such, and seems to focus entirely on the gamesmanship of the case, insisting that the attorney pursue all manner of bizarre theories and maneuvers which put the client and attorney sooner or later at serious odds. Conflict with his own attorney eventually becomes part of the gamesmanship. Refusing to cooperate with professional mental evaluations, or seeming to manipulate them in a sort of sparring match becomes part of the gamesmanship. Causing the proceedings to be disrupted and repeated becomes part of the gamesmanship. If the latter is the case, he literally could not rationally consider a plea bargain even in the face of overwhelming evidence, because all he sees is his own maneuvers.