Man who shot Reagan seeks to live outside mental hospital

WASHINGTON (AP) — The would-be assassin of President Ronald Reagan is "clinically ready" to live fulltime outside a mental hospital, his lawyer argued in federal court today.

John Hinckley Jr. has been in "full and stable remission" for more than two decades, his lawyer Barry Levine argued.

Prosecutor Colleen Kennedy argued to the contrary, saying more restrictions and conditions are needed to keep both Hinckley and others safe.

Hinckley was 25 when a jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting of Reagan in 1981, which also seriously wounded Press Secretary James Brady. Ever since, Hinckley has lived at St. Elizabeths, a Washington mental hospital. But for a dozen years now, he's gradually been given more freedom.

Now 60, he already spends more than half his time — 17 days a month — at the home of his 89-year-old mother in a gated community that surrounds a golf course in Williamsburg, Va. He goes to movies and the bookstore, shopping and eating out like anyone else, and mostly goes unnoticed, although the U.S. Secret Service keeps watch now and then.