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Unabomber’s Brother Headlines Daylong Forensic Mental Health Symposium

March 18th, 2008

ContactSheila Carmody
Director of Media Relations
The Sage Colleges
(518) 244-4593 - office
(518) 366-6148 - cell

Albany and Troy, NY – The revelation that his brother might be the Unabomber, who killed three people and wounded 23 others in 16 bombings during a 17-year period beginning in 1978, was painful for David Kaczynski who eventually went to the FBI with his suspicion.  It’s a story he’ll share during a Forensic Mental Health Symposium that takes place on The Sage Colleges' Albany and Troy campuses on Friday, April 4. Kaczynski's lecture will take place at 6:30 p.m. on the Troy campus (Russell Sage College) in the Bush Memorial Auditorium, First and Congress streets, Troy. (See below for  events scheduled for the Sage College of Albany campus, 140 New Scotland Ave., during the day.)

David Kaczynski, whose brother received life in prison, will be joined by Bill Babbitt, who had a similar experience. Babbitt’s brother, Manny Babbitt, was executed after being tried and convicted for the murder of an elderly woman who died of a heart attack after he broke into her home and beat her. Like David Kaczynski, it was Bill Babbitt who tipped off the police when he realized his mentally ill brother, Manny Babbitt, might be responsible.

Forensic mental health addresses the needs of people with mental illness in the criminal justice system. Kaczynski and Babbitt were assured their loved ones would receive the psychological help they needed. David Kaczynski suspects his brother most likely would have received the death penalty save for his family’s financial ability to hire competent counsel. Bill Babbitt’s family was not able to afford good counsel, and the deal he made with authorities – that they would help his brother receive psychological help and avoid the death penalty – was ultimately broken and his brother executed in 1999.

A Conversation with David Kaczynski and Bill Babbitt: Race, Class and the Death Penalty is sponsored by The Sage Colleges’ Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice and is the 21st annual Hoffman Lecture in Sociology and Social Policy, endowed through the generosity of Linda Rosenfeld Hoffman. It’s the culmination of a daylong event dedicated to Justice, Mental Illness and the Death Penalty and is an offshoot of Sage’s undergraduate programs in Sociology and Criminal Justice and the graduate program in Forensic Mental Health, the only such master’s program in the Capital Region.

The Albany events also are sponsored by Sage's Dept. of Sociology and Criminal Justice but take place on the Sage College of Albany campus (140 New Scotland Ave.). All of the lectures are free and open to the public.

Police Interrogation of Persons with Mental Illness: False Confessions and Actual InnocenceSession I: 12:00 noon – 12:50 p.m. at the Opalka Gallery (140 New Scotland Ave., Albany)
Allison Redlich, Ph.D., Policy Research Associates
William McIntyre, Ph.D., Director, Public Safety Psychology, PLLC

Capital Defense Work in State and Federal CasesSession II: 1:00 p.m. – 1:50 p.m. at the Opalka Gallery (140 New Scotland Ave., Albany)
Alex Bunin, J.D., Federal Defenders Office
Terence L. Kindlon, J.D., Law Offices of Kindlon and Shanks

The Mitigation Expert: Reflections on the Process and What Helps a Client’s CaseSession III 2:00 p.m. – 2:50 p.m. at the Opalka Gallery (140 New Scotland Ave., Albany)
Marla Brassard, Ph.D., Teacher’s College, Columbia University
Cecilia Alphonso, MSW, Alphonso Associates

Readings from Dead Man WalkingSession IV 3:00 p.m. – 3:50 p.m. at the Opalka Gallery (140 New Scotland Ave.)
David Baecker, Ph.D., Sage Colleges Theatre Department.

                      
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About The Sage Colleges
The Sage Colleges is an independent comprehensive university with two four-year undergraduate colleges: Russell Sage College for women in Troy, N.Y and the coeducational Sage College of Albany. Through SCA's Sage After Work program, working adults with prior college credit can complete the bachelor’s degree in a flexible schedule and format. The coeducational Sage Graduate School offers master's and doctoral degrees on both campuses. 

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