(Host) David Kaczynski, the brother of the man known as the Unabomber, came to Vermont on Wednesday to add his voice to those protesting a federal death penalty trial now underway in Burlington.
(Kaczynski) “Certainly I don’t think killing is justified if we have alternative means to protect society. Life without parole does that.”
(Host) Kaczynski is the younger brother of Ted Kaczynski, who killed three people and injured twenty-three others over a seventeen -year period.
It was David Kaczynski who first tipped off authorities that his brother may be responsible for the crimes.
But Kaczynski broke with federal prosecutors after they sought the death penalty in his brother’s case. He says he and his mother met with the family of one of the victims at the end of his brother’s trial.
(Kaczynski) “It was a very, very unbelievably gracious and decent thing for them to do. They thanked us for our courage in turning Ted over to the authorities. And they told us that all they ever really wanted was for the violence to stop. The irony in our case was that that’s all we wanted. We wanted the violence to stop. And we cooperated so closely with the federal authorities. And then once Ted was arrested of course, they didn’t want the violence to stop. They wanted to take one more life.
(Host) Ted Kaczynski is now serving life in prison without parole.
His brother David is executive director of
New Yorkers Against the Death Penalty and recently helped defeat a proposal to re-institute capital punishment in that state.