Doubt exists as to whether the trial of Mr Theodore Kaczynski, accused of being the notorious "Unabomber", will go ahead after an examination this week for "mental incompetence".
The trial in Sacramento was thrown into confusion last week when Mr Kaczynski tried to dismiss his lawyers and apparently made an attempt to commit suicide by hanging himself with his underwear.
He is now under a 24-hour suicide watch and attached to a heart monitor.
Further confusion has arisen over reports that his lawyers are still trying to do a deal with the government prosecutors to avoid the death penalty if he is found guilty of the charges of killing two men in Sacramento by package bombs. As his lawyers were also preparing to plead insanity it is not clear that they can at the same time offer a guilty plea, especially if they are at odds with their client.
The prosecution alleges that Mr Kaczynski (55) killed a total of three persons and injured 23 more in a bombing campaign spread over 18 years.
The former mathematics professor at the University of California at Berkeley was arrested in April 1996 in a tiny cabin in the wilds of Montana after his brother David tipped off the FBI that he could be the person responsible for the bombings.
This followed the publication of the Unabomber's 35,000-word manifesto in the Washington Post and the New York Times denouncing modern technology. The newspapers complied with the Unabomber's demand to publish his manifesto in the hope that this would result in the end of his bombing campaign.
Mr David Kaczynski recognised some of his brother's anti-technology rantings in the manifesto and after much heart-searching contacted the FBI about his suspicions. He also asked that if his brother was arrested and charged with the killings he should not face the death penalty.
However the federal prosecutor has asked for the death penalty in the trial which began with a long-drawn-out jury selection process last November and was scheduled to move to hearing evidence last week. Efforts by Mr Kaczynski's lawyers to have the death penalty charge dropped in exchange for pleading guilty were rejected by the prosecution so the defence planned to plead insanity to spare him from execution if found guilty.
Mr Kaczynski also refused to submit to a psychiatric examination by prosecution experts. Last week just as the prosecution case was about to open in the Sacramento court, Mr Kaczynski rejected his lawyers' insanity defence and asked for another lawyer.
It was after Judge Garland Burrell ruled that it was too late to do this that Mr Kaczynski announced that he would dismiss his lawyers and defend himself. But when the judge was informed that the previous night Mr Kaczynski had apparently tried to hang himself, he suspended the trial and ordered the defendant to be examined by a federal psychiatrist for "mental incompetence".
The results of this examination will be given to the judge confidentially at the end of this week. He will then have to rule whether Mr Kaczynski is fit to stand trial and conduct his own defence.
Several major newspapers have criticised the "chaos and legal confusion" that is threatening to turn the Kaczynski trial into a "travesty". The New York Times said it was now clear that the Justice Department was wrong to refuse the offer by the defence to plead guilty in exchange for the dropping of the demand for the death penalty.