IT'S A PURITAN NATION:

John Hinckley, who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981, will be released from a psychiatric hospital after a judge on Wednesday set a series of conditions for him to live with his mother in Virginia.

The 103-page opinion from U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said Mr. Hinckley's doctors have found he has "no signs of psychotic symptoms, delusional thinking, or any violent tendencies,'' and therefore "presents no danger to himself or to others in the reasonable future if released.''

Mr. Hinckley may be released as early as Aug. 5, the judge ruled.

The ruling means that 35 years after an attack that severely wounded the president and three others, Mr. Hinckley will be a free man--albeit with restrictions on his travel, communications, work and use of the internet.

Mr. Hinckley, 61, was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982 and committed to St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C.

It wasn't enough that Ronald Reagan had forgiven John Hinckley Jr. in his heart. He wanted to forgive the young man to his face.

Pope John Paul II had extended his hand to the man who tried to kill him, and Reagan was apparently inspired to do the same.

So in 1983, the president asked the White House physician to see whether a meeting with Hinckley would be possible, according to people involved in the effort. Hinckley was at St. Elizabeths Hospital, the Washington psychiatric hospital, after being found not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting of Reagan and three others.

It would be a remarkable moment, the president face to face with the man who tried to assassinate him.

"I had the feeling he really wanted to do it," said Roger Peele, then head of psychiatry at St. Elizabeths.

But Reagan wanted to know what Hinckley's caregivers thought. Peele found himself on the phone with the president, who called from Air Force One.

"He said he only wanted to do what was in Mr. Hinckley's best interests," Peele recalled in an interview. The psychiatrist joked that the president should join the treatment team. "He laughed," Peele said.

Then the conversation turned serious. Peele said it would not be wise for Reagan to meet with Hinckley.

"I was concerned that it would diminish Mr. Hinckley's sense of responsibility," said Peele, who oversaw but was not directly involved in Hinckley's treatment.

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