The man who shot and killed two Dublin postal supervisors in December 2017 is asking a federal judge to let him leave the psychiatric facility where he's been held since his 2019 acquittal by reason of insanity.

DeShaune Stewart, now 32, wants to transfer to a treatment facility in Columbia, South Carolina, the Columbus Dispatch reported. The Bureau of Prisons has said Stewart is no longer a substantial risk of bodily injury to another person or serious property damage. Federal prosecutors are fighting the move, arguing the South Carolina placement would be tantamount to releasing him into the community.

Stewart killed supervisor Lance Herrera-Dempsey at the Emerald Parkway post office on Dec. 23, 2017. Later that morning, postmaster Ginger Ballard was killed in an apartment parking lot, where authorities arrested Stewart with a handgun. A 2018 federal indictment said both victims were killed because of their official duties.

Psychologists later determined Stewart had experienced manic and psychotic episodes and was not fully aware of his actions. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 2019.

This is not Stewart's first attempt to leave secure confinement. A 2023 plan would have placed him with his mother, but a federal court found the Bureau of Prisons' safety determination insufficient. Prosecutors now say no Ohio mental-health facility was willing to supervise Stewart's medication and treatment, and they question the South Carolina facility's compliance track record.

A federal judge could hear the request as soon as the week of Aug. 8, according to the Dispatch.