Kaczynski Jury Selection Begins

Theodore Kaczynski watched attentively Wednesday as prospective jurors confided their anguish about imposing the death penalty - even in a case as notorious as the deadly Unabomber killings.

“It is my conclusion that the death penalty does not serve a useful purpose,” said one elderly man. But when pressed, the man said he could impose death, because “it is the law of the land and has to be applied.”

The man was one of three prospects to pass muster in the first round of meticulous jury questioning. Prosecutors and the defense will seat a panel of 12 jurors and six alternates to judge the Montana hermit on charges which could send him to his death.

Kaczynski’s much-awaited trial began with 600 prospective jurors waiting to be questioned in a jury selection process, which could stretch over a month.