Second Opinion: Let Hinckley Visit

John Hinckley Jr.'s former psychiatrist said Tuesday that the man who shot President Reagan hasn't shown "any evidence of psychosis in the last 16 years" and should be allowed to visit his parents without supervision.

Reagan's family and the government oppose the idea.

Robert Keisling, who treated Hinckley at St. Elizabeths Hospital in 1998 and 1999 before leaving the facility for another position, said his former patient would not be dangerous to himself or others if he were allowed to visit his parents.

Keisling said Hinckley is recovering from the mental illness he suffered from when he shot Reagan and three others outside a Washington hotel in March 1981. Hinckley, 48, said he shot the president to impress actress Jodie Foster. He was acquitted by reason of insanity.

"The violent acts occurred when he was in a psychotic episode," Keisling said. "As far as I can tell, there hasn't been any evidence of psychosis in the last 16 years."

Even if Hinckley was to suffer a relapse, Keisling said, such incidents occur over weeks or months, not during a day or two in which he would not be under hospital supervision.

"The risk of relapse is practically zero," he said. "You don't see people become acutely psychotic in 48 hours."

Keisling followed Hinckley's psychologist, Sidney Binks, to the stand.

Hinckley has asked U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman to let him leave Washington's St. Elizabeths Hospital unescorted and visit his parents at their home. Five of the 10 proposed trips would be overnight visits.

"Do you believe you know what John Hinckley is thinking?" Hinckley lawyer Barry W. Levine asked Binks at the conclusion of Monday's daylong testimony.

"To the best of my ability, yes," Binks said.

"Do you know him well enough to say the court should grant the conditional release?" Levine said.

"Yes," Binks replied.

Under a 1999 federal appeals court ruling, Hinckley has been able to take supervised day trips off hospital grounds. Now he wants to travel unescorted to his parents' home in Williamsburg, Va., some three hours away.

Hinckley sought similar privileges three years ago, but U.S. District Judge June L. Green canceled a hearing after prosecutors said he had a "continued interest in violently themed books and music."

Hinckley was at the hearing but sat quietly with his lawyers as Binks, who has treated him for four years, testified.

Binks said Hinckley regularly feeds the stray cats on the St. Elizabeths grounds and reads books about cats, as well as magazines and newspapers. He has stopped reading most other books out of fear they would be perceived as violently themed, Binks said.

"He worries about his actions being misinterpreted," Binks said.

Government lawyer Robert Chapman suggested the pared-down reading list might be an attempt to put up a false front, a possibility acknowledged by Friedman in overruling Levine's objection to a series of questions.

"Maybe he's not reading the books that he's very much interested in because he's learned what to be deceptive about," Friedman said.

By Jonathan D. Salant