Ted Kaczynski wanted to hurt people. He wanted to hurt people in Utah, a state he often targeted. The evidence shows he was motivated by simple revenge, and he clearly feels no remorse to this day for what he did.
Society has understandable trouble coming to grips with such a person. Compassion, empathy and love are considered natural human traits, and most people can't comprehend someone devoid of all three. The sentence handed down this week by U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell Jr. - four life sentences plus 30 years - won't comfort any of the bereaved, nor will it help anyone understand such an evil person. But it was a just sentence and, under the circumstances, the best for all involved.Remember, Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber because he targeted people in high-tech fields, seemed determined to make a mockery of the legal system. He insisted on serving as his own lawyer and fought constantly with the lawyers he was trying to fire. Regardless whether the judge granted his wish, the public would surely have had to endure endless appeals, each of which would have added to the pain of the victims and kept them from moving on. Even then, the chances he eventual would have been executed, according to experts, was slim.
Many of his victims were there for the sentencing. Among them was Gary Wright, who opened a package from Kaczynski in Salt Lake City in 1987 and has never recovered physically from the bomb blast that followed. "I fight daily to find the carefree happiness . . . that was taken from me," he said.
From now on - or at least until his jailers decide otherwise - Kaczynski will be locked 23 hours a day in a 12-by-7 foot cell where he can't make eye contact with any other prisoner. He can't visit the prison library or dining room. His only view will be of four walls. His bed will be a concrete slab.
For people like Wright, none of this will bring back the happiness. But at least 18 years of terror have ended at last. The Unabomber, so full of hate and revenge, will not hurt again.