SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) - A former college student ruled insane after he was convicted of second-degree murder for running over four people with his car wants to be released from a mental hospital.

The lawyer of 30-year-old David Attias told a Santa Barbara County judge on Tuesday that his mentally ill client has made great strides in his decade at Patton State Hospital, where he was sent after a jury determined he was legally insane.

The same jury also found him guilty of four counts of second-degree murder for the 2001 deaths in Isla Vista near the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The Santa Barbara News-Press (http://bit.ly/JUSCLe ) says defense attorney Deedrea Edgar wants Attias sent to a halfway house.

Attias, the son of "Ally McBeal" TV director Daniel Attias, was a part-time UC student.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.