John Hinckley, Jr. Trial(图)

e way back to the hotel, he picked up the Washington Star. Hinckley noticed the President's schedule, on page A-4, indicating that Reagan would be speaking to a labor convention at the Washingon Hilton in just a couple of hours. Hinckley showered, took Valium to calm himself, loaded his twenty-two with exploding Devastator bullets purchased nine months earlier at a pawn shop in Lubbock, then wrote a letter to Jodie Foster. The Foster letter shed light on the bizarre motive for Hinckley's plan:

　　Dear Jodie,

　　There is a definite possibility that I will be killed in my attempt to get Reagan. It is for this very reason that I am writing you this letter now.

　　As you well know by now I love you very much. Over the past seven months I've left you dozens of poems, letters and love messages in the faint hope that you could develop an interest in me. Although we talked on the phone a couple of times I never had the nerve to simply approach you and introduce myself. Besides my shyness, I honestly did not wish to bother you with my constant presence. I know the many messages left at your door and in your mailbox were a nuisance, but I felt that it was the most painless way for me to express my love for you. I feel very good about the fact that you at least know my name and know how I feel about you. And by hanging around your dormitory, I've come to realize that I'm the topic of more than a little conversation, however full of ridicule it may be. At least you know that I'll always love you. Jodie, I would abandon this idea of getting Reagan in a second if I could only win your heart and live out the rest of my life with you, whether it be in total obscurity or whatever. I will admit to you that the reason I'm going ahead with this attempt now is because I just cannot wait any longer to impress you. I've got to do something now to make you understand, in no uncertain terms, that I am doing all of this for your sake! By sacrificing my freedom and possibly my life, I hope

to change your mind about me. This letter is being written only an hour before I leave for the Hilton Hotel. Jodie, I'm asking you to please look into your heart and at least give me the chance, with this historical deed, to gain your respect and love.

　　I love you forever,

　　John Hinckley

　　At one-thirty, Hinckley took a cab through a light drizzle to the Hilton.

　　The President waved to a crowd as he walked toward the hotel entrance at 1:45. Hinckley waved back. At 2:25, accompanied by aides and bodyguards, Reagan left the hotel and began moving towards his waiting limousine. A voice yelled, "President Reagan, President Reagan!" As the President turned in his direction, Hinckley——crouching like a marksman——emptied the six bullets in his gun in rapid succession. The first bullet tore through the brain of press secretary James Brady. The second his policeman Thomas Delahanty in the back. The third overshot the President and hit a building. The fourth shot hit secret service agent Timothy McCarthy in the chest. The fifth shot hit the bullet-proof glass of the President's limousine.

　　The sixth and final bullet nearly killed the President. As aides rushed to push Reagan into his car, the bullet ricocheted off the car, then hit the President in the chest, grazed a rib and lodged in his lung, just inches from his heart. At first it was assumed that the bullet missed the President, and the limousine headed for the White House. Within seconds, however, the President began coughing up blood and the limousine changed course and sped for George Washington University Hospital, where the President underwent two hours of life-saving surgery.

　　Hinckley was still clicking the trigger on his twenty-two when secret service agents wrestled him to the ground. An agent recalled a "desperate feeling of 'I've got to get to it and stop it.'" as he came down on Hinckley with his right arm around his head.

　　THE TRIAL

　　With dozens of witnesses and the shootings captured on videotape, the government knew as well as John Hinckley's own defense lawyer, Vince Fuller, that the only plausible defense was the insanity defense. After a brief detention at the Marine base in Quantico, Virginia——where Fuller first met Hinckley——, he was transferred to a federal penitentiary in Butner, North Carolina. Fuller informed Hinckley's parents of the reasons for the move: "They want to do a psychiatric evaluation, and Butner has the facilities." Over the next four months, psychiatrists for both sides probed nearly every aspect of Hinckley's life.

　　When the psychiatric reports came in, there were no surprises. All the government psychiatrists concluded that Hinckley was legally sane——that he appreciated the wrongfulness of his act——at the time of the shooting. All three defense psychiatrists diagnosed Hinckley as psychotic——and legally insane——at the time of the shooting. Further evidence of the severity of Hinckley's mental problems came in May, two days before his twenty-sixth birthday, when he attempted suicide by overdosing on Valium. In November, he tried again——this time hanging himself in his cell window.

　　Hinckley insisted that his lawyers get Jodie Foster to testify in his trial. If they didn't make every effort to do so, he said, he would refuse to cooperate in his own defense. Eventually, Fuller arranged with Foster's lawyer to have the actress testify in a closed session with only the judge, lawyers, and Hinckley present. The tape could later be introduced into evidence at the trial. When Hinckley received the news he excitedly told his parents, "Mom! Dad! I'll be right there in the same room!"

　　On March 30, 1982, authorities took Hinckley to the federal courthouse in Washington for Jodie Foster's videotaped testimony. The testimony sorely disappointed Hinckley, who received not a single glance or word on his behalf from Foster. As Foster complet

ed her testimony, Hinckley hurled a ballpoint pen at her and yelled, "I'll get you Foster!" Marshals surrounded Hinckley and hauled him from the room.

　　Jury selection for the Hinckley trial began on April 27, 1982. Selected from a pool of ninety potential jurors were eleven blacks and one white, seven women and five men.

　　The first phase of the prosecution case, uncontested by the defense, established the obvious: that a shooting had occurred and that Hinckley had done the shooting. Early prosecution witnesses included two of Hinckley's victims, police officer Thomas Delahanty and secret service agent Timothy McCarthy, and a neurosurgeon who described the path of Hinckley's bullet through the brain of James Brady. Prosecutor Roger Adelman also attempted to show premeditation by introducing video footage showing Hinckley's face in a crowd at a Carter campaign rally in Dayton and producing an attendant at a Colorado rifle range who testified that Hinckley engaged in target practicing there in December, 1980.

　　When the prosecution rested its formal case, the real trial——the insanity trial——began. Defense attorney Vince Fuller opened by asking JoAnn Hinckley about John's childhood, his letters to home from Texas Tech about the imaginary "Lynn," missing money (presumably stolen by John) from Jack Hinckley's study. In cross-examination of JoAnn Hinckley, Assistant U. S. Attorney Robert Chapman tried to establish through his questions that Hinckley couldn't have been too sick——or his parents would have known about it. Why, Chapman wanted to know, did JoAnn Hinckley in the months before the shooting tell John's psychiatrist, Dr. Hopper, that "things are fine."

　　Jack Hinckley testified about his decision to cut off John's financial support. He told about the day in Denver when he left him to find a cheap motel and try to make a life: "O.K., you are on your own. Do whatever you want to do." Jack Hinckley said, "Looking back on that, I'm sure that it was the greatest mistake in my life." He tried to take the blame for what happened: "I am the cause of John's tragedy——I forced him out at a time when he simply couldn't cope. I wish to God that I could trade places with him right now."

　　Dr. John Hopper, wearing aviator glasses and talking in a weary tone, testified about his misdiagnosis of Hinckley. John was not merely an "unmotivated kid who needed behavioral therapy," as he first thought, but someone suffering from serious mental illness. An autobiography written by John in November 1980 at Hopper's request was introduced into evidence. In it, Hinckley wrote of "a relationship I had dreamed about" that "went absolutely nowhere" and a mind that was "on the breaking point." Hopper, relying on his face-to-face judgment of Hinckley, had failed to appreciate the seriousness of the warnings contained in the autobiography. Hopper also testified that he knew nothing of Hinckley's stalking of President Carter or his purchase of handguns.

　　As technicians set up television sets at various locations in the courtroom, Judge Barrington Parker told the jury: "Ladies and gentleman, at this point in time you will see a video tape rendition of a deposition of the witness Jodie Foster." At the defense table, John moved from his habitual slump to an upright position. Foster described Hinckley's first sets of letters to her as "lover-type letters." The last batch of letters Foster called "distress-sounding" and she said "I gave them to the dean of my college." One letter, dated March 6, 1981, said only: "Jodie Foster, love, just wait. I will rescue you very soon. please cooperate. J.W.H." Asked whether she'd "ever seen a message like that before," Foster replied, "Yes, in the movie Taxi Driver the character Travis Bickle sends the

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