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Home on His Own?

Aired November 26, 2003 - 13:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: What are the facts the judge needs to consider before making a decision in the Hinckley case? For some ideas, we turn to forensic psychiatrist Helen Morrison in Chicago.
Dr. Morrison, good to have you with us.

HELEN MORRISON, FORENSIC PSYCHIATRIST: Thank you for having me.

O'BRIEN: All right, first off, if this were not the case involving former President Reagan, we would obviously not be paying as much attention to it. Something like this is going on every day all across the country and people like this are allowed these unsupervised visits, correct?

MORRISON: That's absolutely correct, but because this was such a high-profile case, and because of the reasons that Hinckley shot Reagan in the first place, meaning to be noticed by a famous person, Jodie Foster, the issue is, what happens when he is out on his own? He's been highly deceptive. The last time they tried to get supervised visits for him, they found, hidden in his room, notes that indicated he was still obsessed with her, still stalking her, so to speak.

O'BRIEN: What are the real facts that a judge needs to consider in all this? In some sense, he's hearing from some psychiatrists and psychologists who've examined Hinckley, who say with the proper restrictions, it would be OK, he would do OK to do some supervised visits. But how is he to know that for sure?

MORRISON: Well, first of all, if he has unsupervised visits, he's not going to be restricted. He'll be given a pass, for example, to leave the hospital at a certain time. He'll be expected back at a certain time.

What the judge needs to know is, is this man still seriously mentally ill? Is he still acting under these fixed, false beliefs or delusions he had? And will he act on those delusions, meaning will he still try to get attention by hurting someone? will he need to hurt someone who's famous in order to get all the attention he needs so that his alleged admirer, Jodie Foster, will still pay attention to him? And that's a very difficult question. Mr. Hinckley is extremely adept. He's very smart. He knows what the system is looking for. And he knows exactly how to behave.

O'BRIEN: Should the judge consider two things -- the notoriety of the case, and/or the fact that there are family members of victims who have real problems with this? MORRISON: Well, actually, the law basically says that, is he mentally ill and is he dangerous? And those are the only two questions the judge has to answer. Will his mental illness lead him to act in a dangerous manner? So all of the extra testimony that's coming from either the family who saw him when he was at his worst and never thought there was anything wrong, to the victim's families who still harbor, as they probably need to a tremendous fear and anger towards Mr. Hinckley. So those two may be listened to, but the law doesn't say that has to be taken into account.

O'BRIEN: Forensic psychiatrist Helen Morrison, thank you very much.

MORRISON: Thank you, Happy Thanksgiving.

O'BRIEN: Same to you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired November 26, 2003 - 13:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: What are the facts the judge needs to consider before making a decision in the Hinckley case? For some ideas, we turn to forensic psychiatrist Helen Morrison in Chicago.
Dr. Morrison, good to have you with us.

HELEN MORRISON, FORENSIC PSYCHIATRIST: Thank you for having me.

O'BRIEN: All right, first off, if this were not the case involving former President Reagan, we would obviously not be paying as much attention to it. Something like this is going on every day all across the country and people like this are allowed these unsupervised visits, correct?

MORRISON: That's absolutely correct, but because this was such a high-profile case, and because of the reasons that Hinckley shot Reagan in the first place, meaning to be noticed by a famous person, Jodie Foster, the issue is, what happens when he is out on his own? He's been highly deceptive. The last time they tried to get supervised visits for him, they found, hidden in his room, notes that indicated he was still obsessed with her, still stalking her, so to speak.

O'BRIEN: What are the real facts that a judge needs to consider in all this? In some sense, he's hearing from some psychiatrists and psychologists who've examined Hinckley, who say with the proper restrictions, it would be OK, he would do OK to do some supervised visits. But how is he to know that for sure?

MORRISON: Well, first of all, if he has unsupervised visits, he's not going to be restricted. He'll be given a pass, for example, to leave the hospital at a certain time. He'll be expected back at a certain time.

What the judge needs to know is, is this man still seriously mentally ill? Is he still acting under these fixed, false beliefs or delusions he had? And will he act on those delusions, meaning will he still try to get attention by hurting someone? will he need to hurt someone who's famous in order to get all the attention he needs so that his alleged admirer, Jodie Foster, will still pay attention to him? And that's a very difficult question. Mr. Hinckley is extremely adept. He's very smart. He knows what the system is looking for. And he knows exactly how to behave.

O'BRIEN: Should the judge consider two things -- the notoriety of the case, and/or the fact that there are family members of victims who have real problems with this? MORRISON: Well, actually, the law basically says that, is he mentally ill and is he dangerous? And those are the only two questions the judge has to answer. Will his mental illness lead him to act in a dangerous manner? So all of the extra testimony that's coming from either the family who saw him when he was at his worst and never thought there was anything wrong, to the victim's families who still harbor, as they probably need to a tremendous fear and anger towards Mr. Hinckley. So those two may be listened to, but the law doesn't say that has to be taken into account.

O'BRIEN: Forensic psychiatrist Helen Morrison, thank you very much.

MORRISON: Thank you, Happy Thanksgiving.

O'BRIEN: Same to you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com