Hinckley seeks unsupervised visits with parents
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John Hinckley Jr, who tried to assassinate President Reagan, arrives at Federal Court in Washington in September.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A lawyer for John Hinckley Jr., the man who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981, told a federal judge Monday his client is probably the least dangerous person on the planet and should be allowed unsupervised visits with his parents at their Virginia home.
Federal prosecutors are fighting the request, arguing in a pre-hearing memorandum last week that Hinckley, 48, cannot be trusted and would represent a danger to the community.
A doctor who has treated Hinckley over the last four years testified Monday that Hinckley's depression and psychosis -- diagnosed in the early 1980s -- are in full remission. Dr. Sidney Binks, the first of four witnesses set to testify, said Hinckley still has a narcissistic personality disorder, although it is improving.
Hinckley, wearing a suit and tie, sat in the courtroom next to his lawyers. At one point he waved to his parents sitting behind him.
Hinckley lawyer Barry Levine, in his opening statement, said the request for unsupervised visits away from St. Elizabeths Hospital "is not a bold proposal."
"All the experts have agreed the next step ... is conditional release," Levine said.
Government prosecutors have said little in the courtroom so far, since Hinckley's lawyers present their witnesses first. Pre-hearing documents filed by the government argued against the proposal.
"No one knows what Mr. Hinckley is thinking. He has boasted that he can fool medical experts, and he continually has been proven deceptive about important matters throughout the years of his hospitalization," a government court document said.
In his opening Monday, Levine said, "The government resorts to fear itself. ... Irrational fear is not a legal basis to denying the next step in treatment."
In 1982, a jury found Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity of attempting to assassinate Reagan and wounding a Secret Service agent and Reagan's press secretary, James Brady, outside of a Washington hotel. He has been institutionalized at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington ever since.
Binks, when asked if Hinckley has ever expressed remorse for the shootings, said he has done so and "wonders how the families are doing."
Hinckley's lawyers want the court to permit five day trips to the home of his parents, Jack and Jo Ann Hinckley, in Williamsburg, Virginia, which is outside the Washington metro area. They then ask for five overnight visits at their home.
For several years, Hinckley has been allowed to leave the hospital, but he is always accompanied by hospital staff. The defense said those visits have "been a great success."
The hospital is arguing in favor of a gradual schedule of unsupervised visits, which would begin with day trips and overnight stays with Hinckley's parents in the Washington area, followed later by overnight stays with his parents at their home in Williamsburg.
Levine argued that Secret Service agents would likely continue to follow Hinckley even on unsupervised trips from the hospital.
But in their court filing, prosecutors stressed the court may release Hinckley only if it is satisfied that his parents will provide for the security of the community during the conditional release.
"Neither Mr. Hinckley nor the hospital may ask the court to rely on presence of agents of Secret Service to provide security for the community, because there is no factual basis to find that agents provide such security," prosecutors said in their court filing.
Prosecutors point to a statement Hinckley made in 1987, when asking for supervised visits, in which he said he was able to deceive his psychiatrists.
The Justice Department plans to call two prominent psychiatrists to bolster its case against the visits. Dr. Binks was the first of two experts who have treated Hinckley at the hospital to be called by the defense.
The hearing is expected to last about two days.
-- CNN Producer Kevin Bohn contributed to this report
