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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Unabomber Suspect Can’t Protect Journals

Scripps-Mcclatchy Western Servic

Theodore Kaczynski’s personal journals cannot be excluded from his trial based on arguments that his private thoughts are protected under the U.S. Constitution, a federal judge has ruled.

But U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. said he will consider a late challenge to the FBI’s search of the suspected Unabomber’s mountain cabin, which yielded the diaries and other evidence.

The order filed late Monday was a partial victory for the lawyers representing Kaczynski, who is suspected of being the notorious serial bomber whose explosive devices killed three people and injured 22 others between 1978 and 1995.

In a motion filed earlier this month, federal defenders Quin Denvir and Judy Clarke sought to keep Kaczynski’s journals secret based on a century-old Supreme Court case, Boyd vs. the United States, which established a “zone of privacy” that cannot be violated. But Burrell said the defense arguments were “not persuasive,” because later court decisions have undermined the Boyd case.

The lawyers also filed a motion earlier this month broadly challenging the FBI’s search of Kaczynski’s mountain cabin in April of last year.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Scripps-McClatchy Western Service