Hinckley Wants More Freedom

The man who tried to kill President Reagan 22 years ago wants permission to make unsupervised, overnight visits to his parents' house, a newspaper reports.

The Washington Post reports a hearing is set for next week on the request by John W. Hinckley, who shot the president and three others on March 30, 1981. He has been confined to St. Elizabeth's Hospital since he was found not guilty of the shooting by reason of insanity in 1982.

Hinckley, 48, has made trips off the hospital grounds for three years, but always supervised by hospital staff and only within Washington. FBI agents and Secret Service officers always monitor those excursions.

Now he wants to make 10 trips, five of them overnight, to his parents' house in Williamsburg, Va.

A court said he was entitled to the earlier trips, which prosecutors had opposed. Prosecutors, and the city's Department of Mental Health, oppose the new request as well, arguing that Hinckley is still a risk.

Besides the off-site visits, Hinckley was allowed to take unsupervised walks around the hospital grounds and to have a job in an office at the hospital. He has also adopted cats that he cares for.

"He handled these privileges responsibly," D.C. Mental Health Director Martha B. Knisley wrote this summer. "Notably the community outings were without incident and did not result in any problematic recognition of him or incur significant media attention."

But while admitting that Hinckley's mental problems were in remission, Knisley wrote: "The Hospital is recommending a more gradual conditional release."

The hospital wants Hinckley to be allowed 12-hour off-campus trips in Washington, then overnight trips in Washington, and then trips home.

"Because of Mr. Hinckley's history of deception and violence, the government objects to Mr. Hinckley's motion for limited conditional release," reads a filing by prosecutors.

But Hinckley's attorneys say the trips would be a "critical component" of the gunman's recovery, The Post reports.

"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," attorney Barry Wm. Levine wrote. "Mr. Hinckley does not pose a risk of danger to himself or others now or in the reasonable future."

Mr. Reagan was shot outside the Washington Hilton Hotel, after making a speech to the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO. His press secretary, James Brady, was wounded and partially paralyzed. Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and D.C. cop Thomas Delahanty were also wounded.