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American Morning
Hinckley Hearing
Aired November 17, 2003 - 09:18 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Both sides will call experts, trying to bolster their cases. So could the man who shot a president really be let out unsupervised?
For more on that, CNN's legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joins us. Nice to see you. Good morning.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hi.
O'BRIEN: Why does this eventually go to a judge as opposed to experts who will say, and the hospital has said, that he's cured, he's ready to move on?
TOOBIN: Because we don't trust experts, and experts often disagree. as they disagree there this case. And the buck has to stop somewhere and it has to stop with a court here.
Now the legal system simply is poor at defining what legal insanity is, and it's even worse at defining when it's cured. And that's why this is such a struggle.
O'BRIEN: To what degree does the target play such a big role in this case? Because of course his target was President Ronald Reagan. And if we were talking about someone who wasn't a president, there would be certainly less profile, but I have to imagine he would have gotten out a lot sooner.
TOOBIN: He probably would have. And also there's tremendous dissatisfaction with the verdict, the sense that he got away with something, and you know, the reason, that people know that Hinckley shot the president, and the idea that he's only going to serve 21 years in custody is unacceptable to a vast majority of people, including the Justice Department, and that's why they're fighting so hard.
O'BRIEN: "The New York Times" talked about a momentum toward freedom. Would you agree with that, having sort of watched this case from the outside?
TOOBIN: Sure. He has been released for supervised visits, and he is not a prisoner in any sense of the word.
The interesting thing about the insanity defense is oftentimes it's worse to be acquitted for -- by reason of insanity, because you know, when you have a prison sentence, you serve that period and no longer. With insanity, you can be held far longer than you would have been held for a prison sentence until the doctors say you're free to go. So this isn't some gift that John Hinckley's been given, the fact that he was acquitted by reason of insanity. But, you know, this remains an intensely difficult decision for Judge Paul Friedman.
O'BRIEN: It will be interesting to see which way he goes on it. Jeff Toobin, as always, thanks a lot.
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 17, 2003 - 09:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Both sides will call experts, trying to bolster their cases. So could the man who shot a president really be let out unsupervised?
For more on that, CNN's legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joins us. Nice to see you. Good morning.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hi.
O'BRIEN: Why does this eventually go to a judge as opposed to experts who will say, and the hospital has said, that he's cured, he's ready to move on?
TOOBIN: Because we don't trust experts, and experts often disagree. as they disagree there this case. And the buck has to stop somewhere and it has to stop with a court here.
Now the legal system simply is poor at defining what legal insanity is, and it's even worse at defining when it's cured. And that's why this is such a struggle.
O'BRIEN: To what degree does the target play such a big role in this case? Because of course his target was President Ronald Reagan. And if we were talking about someone who wasn't a president, there would be certainly less profile, but I have to imagine he would have gotten out a lot sooner.
TOOBIN: He probably would have. And also there's tremendous dissatisfaction with the verdict, the sense that he got away with something, and you know, the reason, that people know that Hinckley shot the president, and the idea that he's only going to serve 21 years in custody is unacceptable to a vast majority of people, including the Justice Department, and that's why they're fighting so hard.
O'BRIEN: "The New York Times" talked about a momentum toward freedom. Would you agree with that, having sort of watched this case from the outside?
TOOBIN: Sure. He has been released for supervised visits, and he is not a prisoner in any sense of the word.
The interesting thing about the insanity defense is oftentimes it's worse to be acquitted for -- by reason of insanity, because you know, when you have a prison sentence, you serve that period and no longer. With insanity, you can be held far longer than you would have been held for a prison sentence until the doctors say you're free to go. So this isn't some gift that John Hinckley's been given, the fact that he was acquitted by reason of insanity. But, you know, this remains an intensely difficult decision for Judge Paul Friedman.
O'BRIEN: It will be interesting to see which way he goes on it. Jeff Toobin, as always, thanks a lot.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
