Reagan shooter wants to leave asylum unsupervised

By WND Staff

The man who nearly assassinated Ronald Reagan in 1981, critically injuring the president, wants permission to leave the psychiatric hospital where he has been confined for more than 20 years, unsupervised, so he can visit his parents.

John Hinckley Jr.’s attorney, Barry Levine, earlier today told U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman such unsupervised visits should be granted, and are customary for other patients at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C.

According to an Associated Press report, Levine asked the court: “Is he going to be judged not by the law but by the identity of the victims of his crime? There is not a single basis to justify the rejection of this proposal.”

Hinckley, 48, has been confined to St. Elizabeth’s since he was found not guilty of attempted murder by reason of insanity.

Hinckley has made several visits, accompanied by psychiatric staff, to bowling alleys, bookshops, movie theaters and the beach over the past three years, and recently applied for 10 unsupervised visits to his parents’ home in Williamsburg, Va., including five overnight stays.

In court documents obtained by the London Telegraph, Levine, Hinckley’s lawyer, stated: “It is undisputed that Mr. Hinckley’s psychosis and depression have been in full remission and that he has shown no symptoms thereof for over a decade. Mr. Hinckley does not pose a risk of danger to himself or others now or in the reasonable future.”

Martha Knisley, the hospital’s mental health director, agreed that Hinckley’s mental disorders were in full remission and said his trips outside had gone well.

“He handled these privileges responsibly,” she said in a letter filed with a federal court in preparation for a recent week. “Notably the community outings were without incident and did not result in any problematic recognition of him or incur significant media attention.”

Several of Hinckley’s day trips around Washington have been with Leslie deVeau, a former patient at St. Elizabeth’s who was found not guilty by reason of insanity of the murder of her 10-year-old daughter, Erin, in 1982.

Court documents said the couple’s relationship “has reportedly changed from romantic to platonic.” DeVeau, 49, has been released from St. Elizabeth’s but visits Hinckley every week.

Previous applications for release were withdrawn due to Hinckley’s obsession with the actress Jodie Foster. In 1987, he was discovered with 20 photos of Foster, with whom he had become fixated after seeing her in the Robert DeNiro film “Taxi Driver.”

He also was found to have corresponded with Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, who tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1985.

Hinckley fired six shots outside the Washington Hilton in March 1981 after approaching the presidential entourage. He wounded Reagan, James Brady, his press secretary, Timothy McCarthy, a secret service officer, and Thomas Delahunty, a police officer.

Patti Davis, Reagan’s only surviving daughter, wrote in Newsweek recently: “I am not objective about this story. How could I be? The man tried to kill my father and almost succeeded. But I have learned about the many aspects of this case. I have done my homework, and while that doesn’t make me any more objective, it does make me more knowledgeable. Consider this: In the late 1980s, when Hinckley and his attorney first started arguing for supervised visits off the hospital grounds, it was discovered that Hinckley had been writing to Ted Bundy and Charles Manson. These pen-pal exchanges had been going on for a while, but the hospital staff, who were at that time pushing for his day passes, were unaware of them. Why? They hadn’t been searching his room; they hadn’t wanted to intrude on his privacy.

“Court papers regarding Hinckley’s latest request were sealed until a few days ago, so my family and the other victims and their families were only just notified about the upcoming hearing,” wrote Davis. “Hinckley’s attorneys have said that giving him more freedom is ‘a critical component’ of his treatment. My response to that is: Who cares? The man plotted carefully, calculating his moves, in an attempt to go down in history as the man who killed President Reagan. He forever changed the lives of the Brady family when he left Jim Brady lying in a pool of blood, his brain irreversibly damaged. Two other men, a secret service agent and a Washington police officer, were shot and injured. Justice was not served when he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. He is certainly insane; he is just as certainly guilty.”

In August, prosecutors said they opposed the request for unsupervised leave: “Because of Mr. Hinckley’s history of deception and violence, the government objects to Mr Hinckley’s motion for limited conditional release.”

“I don’t believe for a second that John Hinckley is no longer mentally ill. Neither do the attorneys for the government who have collided with Hinckley and his attorney for many years now,” added Davis. “I also don’t believe that mental illness means a person is not also extremely smart, deceptive and calculating. If on Sept. 2 John Hinckley is granted the right to walk off hospital grounds with no supervision, we should all ask some very serious questions about our legal system. A methodical, narcissistic man who sought fame through murder knows the value of tenacity, patience, and deception. His ultimate fame might come from his ability to work the system.”

In today’s hearing, psychologist Sidney Binks testified Hinckley is in “full remission” from his mental illness, and that he should be allowed the requested unsupervised visits, reports AP. Binks has treated Hinckley at St. Elizabeths for the past five years.