John Hinckley seeking longer furloughs, possible eventual release..

[Virginia Dare]

why the special privileges for this guy?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/16/AR2007041601738.html

John W. Hinckley Jr., who shot President Ronald Reagan and three other men in 1981, wants to take another step toward what could be his eventual release from St. Elizabeths, the public psychiatric hospital in the District where he has been held since being found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Hinckley, who has visited his parents in Virginia several times in the past year, is asking a federal judge to allow longer visits of two to four weeks and to permit his brother and sister to join their mother and father as "responsible persons" in their brother's case.

U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman began hearing testimony yesterday on whether to give Hinckley expanded freedom, and from the start, it was clear that the judge is also considering the long-range future.

Hinckley is 51, and his mother and father are advancing in age; his father is also in declining health. The judge and the prosecutors who have sought to limit Hinckley's freedom have expressed concern about what will happen once his parents are no longer able to host him on visits away from St. Elizabeths.

[yurbud]

1. The Hinckley's are family friends of Bushes, but the kid missed

so Papa Bush was only able to take over behind the scenes.

I guess they're giving him some slack for trying.

[Branjor]

2. He was not convicted of the crime.

He was found not guilty (or was it innocent, I forget) by reason of insanity. So he can technically be freed if he is ever found to be free of mental illness.