Michael Mello

bn.com Price: $17.46 Retail Price: $24.95 You Save: $7.49 (30%)   In-Stock: Ships within 24 hours  Format: Hardcover, 367pp. ISBN: 1893956016 Publisher: Context Books Pub. Date: May  1999

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ABOUT THE BOOK

From The Publisher
"On January 22, 1998, after a dramatic behind-the-scenes legal struggle, Montana recluse Theodore Kaczynski entered an unconditional plea of guilt in exchange for three life sentences. There were competing views on Kaczynski: hero of radical environmentalism, paranoid schizophrenic, insidious sociopath, revolutionary, Machiavellian genius. Only one thing was clear: Ted Kaczynski did not get his day in court."--BOOK JACKET. "This is the story of a court system that lost sight of its constitutional duties. Mello traces a path through the ethical hall of mirrors created by Kaczynski's capital defense to expose the conflicts of interest and the ideological underpinnings that led to the plea he now seeks to vacate."--BOOK JACKET. "Other details of the proceedings, such as the prosecution's plan to use Kaczynski's private journals, are equally disturbing. Mello analyzes the private diaries of public figures including Anne Frank, Ronald Reagan, Mary Chestnut, and Bob Packwood, raising troubling questions about our Constitution's ability to protect individual privacy."--BOOK JACKET.

Reviews
From Denver Rocky Mountain News  
[An] in-depth analysis...It's important to mention at the outset that Mello does not believe that Kaczynski was wrongly accused. Nor does the author...feel any sympathy for the Unabomber's violent approach to modern life. Mello's main concern is that Kaczynski was not allowed to mount his own defense, which would have been devoid of references to his alleged schizophrenia. The book...draws on other cases to make some intriguing points. For example, the trial of John Brown is covered in detail...The author does a superb job of exploring controversial issues, and he does so without glorifying Kaczynski.
 
From Shay Totten - Vermont Times  
Mello's book is a fascinating case study of not only the Kaczynski case, but of what can go terribly wrong when lawyers, judges, paid experts and the media set out, either by design or simple duplicity, to put their own personal and political beliefs above both facts and the law....Mello convincingly argues that Kaczynski deserves a trial - to have his day in court. Mello is not only able to capture some of the courtroom drama by recreating some of the key scenes through court records and personal interviews, but with his insightful legal mind he is able to take the reader directly into the minds of the drama's key players to help prove his point. At times sympathetic and at other times critical, Mello leads the reader through this Constitutional minefield with academic precision. In parts the book is scholarly, while in others Mello's ardent prose puts Kaczynski's case firmly in the light of history.
 
From Publisher's Weekly - Publishers Weekly  
The Unabomber described in these pages is not the terrorist who killed three and maimed two others. Rather, he's a frustrated defendant who was unable to exercise all the legal options available to him, because his lawyers kept him in the dark about their insanity-defense strategy until it was too late. Mello (Dead Wrong, etc.), a law professor and outspoken critic of capital punishment, corresponded with the imprisoned Theodore Kaczynski. He argues that Kaczyinski's lawyers were selective in presenting evidence in order to support a viewpoint highly prejudicial to their client's best interest. For example, they brought Kaczynski's cramped cabin from Montana to California so they could show it to a jury as proof of their client's dementia. What they did not bring, as one observer pointed out, was the beautiful mountain landscape the cabin inhabited. By entering a guilty plea in exchange for three life sentences, Kaczynski's legal team may have saved him from a death sentence, Mello writes, but they also kept him from getting his day in court and publicizing his ideas about the evils of technology and environmental degradation. Having made his point, Mello tries to draw a parallel between Kaczynski and John Brown. But it is hard to imagine Sierra Club members flocking to a Sacramento courtroom to defend Kaczynski's assaults on professors and businesspeople only vaguely associated with environmental destruction. Kaczynski, despite Mello's sympathy, comes across as someone who believes himself to be superior to anyone who doesn't subscribe to his anti-technology agenda. Mello is a penetrating critic of the legal system. However, though he doesn't try to make Kaczynski a hero, he will have hard time convincing most readers to take Kaczynski seriously as a social critic. (June) FYI: Context Books will publish Kaczynski's own manifesto, Truth Versus Lies, in August. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
 

CUSTOMER REVIEWS
Number of Reviews: 4    Average Rating:

A reviewer, June 23, 1999,
Life and Death
I followed this case very closely and found that Mello's book was extremely accurate. In addition, he does not get too close to his subject matter. Instead, he looks at the way the lawyers worked, as if it were any other case, to describe the problems of the death penalty in an environment where everyone is against the death penalty. The result is not a very pretty picture, since laws are broken in the name of saving a life. This book is important not for its concerns about the Unabomber. The author is aloof about the politics and activities of Kazcynski. But it is even more interesting because issues of insanity and politics raised by the trial of the Unabomber are still so volatile. A contradiction. I highly recommend this book.

A reviewer, June 22, 1999,
due process
I received this book last week. The book I read proved without a doubt that the constitution had failed and Kaczynski only figured insomuch as he was a high profile defendant and thus a test for the system. The constitutional errors are pretty obvious. If anything, the only fault of this book is that Mello drives the point home too much. The constitution allows everyone the right to a trial. I am not a lawyer, but this book made me feel like one. And I highly recommend it. The book is not about guilt, it is about due process. Mello's affiliation with Kaczynski is non-existent. I thought he held the whole ideology thing at arm's length, that it was under considered. The book was more about the way in which anti-death penalty advocates sometimes bend the rules at the expense of due process.

A reviewer, June 11, 1999,
Disappointing
I am disappointed in Mello's book; but then I closely followed the events of the Kaczynski non-trial. My disappointment centers on the fact that the book fails to focus on the essential facts justifying the claim that the court system lost sight of its Constitutional duties. It fails to adequately explain how Kaczynski was coerced. It fails to adequately explain why the Kaczynski plea was involuntary. The author goes too far in making assumptions with regard to Kaczynski's mental health. Further, he specifically sweeps aside the concept of 'innocent 'til proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt' (and in a court of law!) and, in its place, he asserts a new Constitutional right to lawyer-assisted suicide for an accused who doesn't want to endure the system as is. In sum, the book seems to be more about the author's deeply held personal beliefs regarding personal autonomy than about the Kaczynski court failure to honor our Constitution. Thus, the title (The United States of America Versus Theodore John Kaczynski) seems a bit misleading.

A reviewer (grellin456@aol.com), a supporter of the right to be., May 11, 1999,
I am not sure
I have never been sure about this Kaczynski business. I found Michael Mello's book interesting because at least it gives a perspective that is different from the one reported by the press during the trial, which I also thought was biased by the special interest groups opposed to capital punishment. (I guess I am not entirely unsure.) I always thought that it was a shame that Kaczynski didn't get a trial, because it would have been interesting to find out exactly what was on his mind when he was blowing up all those people. This insider's account is interesting in this respect, although we get no insight into K's motives. I enjoyed it and look forward to the trial that Mello says may happen. I hope it does. There would be an interesting book in that!

FROM THE BOOK

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments
Ch. 1	Inventing the Unabomber (Reinventing John Brown)
Ch. 2	The Unabomber Non-Trial: Kafka comes to Town
Ch. 3	Considerations
Ch. 4	John Brown's Body
Ch. 5	The Politics of Insanity
Ch. 6	Live Free or Die (You decide.)
Ch. 7	The Missing Link
	Summations
App	Government's Sentencing Memorandum
	Endnotes
	Index

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