A federal judge on Monday agreed to an unconditional release next year of John Hinckley Jr., the man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981, if he remains mentally stable and “continues to comply with the conditions of his current release order.”
“If he hadn’t tried to kill the president, he would have been unconditionally released a long, long, long time ago,” said Judge Paul L. Friedman, according to the Associated Press. “But everybody is comfortable now after all of the studies, all of the analysis and all of the interviews, and all of the experience with Mr. Hinckley.”
Since Hinckley moved to Williamsburg, Virginia, from a Washington hospital in 2016, court-imposed restrictions have required doctors and therapists to oversee his psychiatric medication and therapy. Hinckley has been barred from having a gun. And he can’t contact Reagan’s children, other victims or their families, or actress Jodie Foster, who he was obsessed with at the time of the 1981 shooting.
Friedman said Hinckley, now 66, has displayed no symptoms of active mental illness, no violent behavior and no interest in weapons since 1983. (AP)
According to the judge’s plan, Hinckley will be released from court supervision in June. The reason for the delay is to observe how Hinckley does in the wake of his mother’s July death and with his therapist retiring in January 2022.
Hinckley fired six shots outside the Washington Hilton Hotel, striking the president, his press secretary, James Brady, a secret service agent, and a police officer. Brady was shot in the head and remained physically and mentally impaired the rest of his life. His death in 2014 was ruled a homicide from the 1981 shooting.
A jury found Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982.
