Court OKs Day Trips for Hinckley

In a first step toward his possible release from a local mental hospital, presidential assailant John W. Hinckley Jr. soon could begin escorted day trips with his parents and his girlfriend, according to an appeals court ruling Friday.

Reversing a lower court decision, a federal appeals panel in Washington cleared the way for Hinckley to take supervised, six-hour trips off the grounds of St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, where he was confined after his 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan.

One judge vehemently dissented, however, saying that “Hinckley’s long, undisputed history of mental illness, deception and violence” demand that he be kept off the streets.

Federal prosecutors, who opposed the visits, said they may still decide to appeal. They were quick to try to dispel any fears fueled by the 2-1 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Excursion Under Hospital Supervision

“The public should understand that today’s court decision does not allow Mr. Hinckley to come and go when he pleases,” U.S. Atty. Wilma A. Lewis said. “He will be in the hospital at all times except in those limited situations when the hospital decides to issue a [day] pass--that is, an excursion off hospital grounds under hospital supervision.”

But the justices themselves acknowledged that their decision could signal a review of whether the 43-year-old Hinckley should someday be released outright, depending on how he behaves on his supervised day trips.

Hinckley’s continued narcissism--and the notoriety of his assassination attempt--mean that he still “faces a lengthy stay” in the hospital, the court said in its opinion. But at the same time, the justices noted that the type of trip sought by the hospital “serves as a crucial precursor to a patient’s reentry into larger society.”

Hinckley, driven by his obsession with actress Jodi Foster 18 years ago, imagined that he could impress her by achieving infamy. He shot and wounded Reagan, Press Secretary James Brady and two others in his March 1981, assassination attempt in the driveway of the Washington Hilton.

Found not guilty by reason of insanity, he has been confined for treatment and rehabilitation at St. Elizabeths, a city-owned facility in southeast Washington.

Court records indicate that he has made significant progress. But as recently as 1996, in behavior demonstrating “disturbing parallels” to the Foster case, Hinckley reportedly began stalking and writing love songs to a pharmacist at the hospital, according to court records.

Hinckley’s longtime lawyer, Barry Wm. Levine, rejected the allegations concerning the pharmacist and said Hinckley has been leading a productive life, working at an administrative job, writing pop ballads and visiting with his longtime girlfriend, an employee at St. Elizabeths.

“This is a man who has worked very hard for close to two decades to get well,” Levine said in an interview. “He has been without any sign of mental disease the whole of the ‘90s, a psychosis in full remission.”

The original proposal for Hinckley’s day trip--authorized by the hospital but rejected by a federal court--would have allowed him to have a holiday dinner with his parents and his girlfriend at an unidentified home. He was to travel by hospital van with a hospital escort.

If the U.S. government fails to appeal Friday’s decision within 45 days, Levine said, a similar day trip would be allowed.

“This is the first of what I hope will be a series of visits into the community,” Levine said. “Each time it will become longer, more generous, perhaps, and always with concern for the public welfare. And I would hope that it ripens into a conditional release and, if appropriate, an unconditional release.”

Levine added that “what is proposed here is not reckless--it is really very conservative, and when Mr. Hinckley goes into the community, the Secret Service could go with him. . . . The irony here is that Mr. Hinckley is one of our safest members of society. He is better.”

Levine argued that U.S. attorneys had treated Hinckley not as a patient under criminal insanity law but as a prisoner, subjecting him to release standards different from other criminally insane people.

Hinckley Would Be Subject to Restraint

At issue in the appellate case was whether escorted day trips--used at St. Elizabeths to take patients to museums, shops, bowling alleys, amusement parks and other places--amount to a “conditional release” under the law and thus have to be approved by a court rather than the hospital.

The appeals court found that it does not.

“We candidly do not see how such a visit under hospital escort is tantamount to being ‘set free’ with ‘conditions,’ ” the court found. “Hinckley would at all times be confined to the presence of hospital personnel and subject to any restraint they deemed necessary on his freedom of movement during this outing. If anything he would be more restrained than he currently is on hospital grounds, where he moves freely without escort.”