In a 103-page order, U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman of Washington wrote that Hinckley, 61, no longer poses a danger to himself or others.
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Hinckley was 25 and had suffered from psychosis and depression for several years when he shot President Ronald Reagan and three others outside a Washington hotel on March 30, 1981. He looks much different than he did 35 years ago when he shot President Ronald Reagan, Reagan’s press secretary James Brady, a policeman and a Secret Service agent. Brady died as a result of his wounds in 2014; prosecutors did not charge Hinckley with his murder.
The man who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan will continue to live under a number of restrictions when he leaves a Washington mental hospital next month.
The shooting endangered Reagan’s life, but he recovered after undergoing emergency surgery.
Hinckley said he had been motivated by a desire to impress Jodie Foster after compulsively watching the 1976 film “Taxi Driver”, in which the American actress, then 13, portrayed a teenage prostitute.
Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, declined to offer an opinion on Hinckley’s release but used the occasion to call for background checks for all gun sales, which Reagan supported. However, a small number of unsupervised visits to family outside hospital grounds, something enjoyed by Hinckley for many years, strikes us as enough freedom for him, and we oppose his full release from St. Elizabeth’s Hospital.
Numerous restrictions attached to Hinckley’s temporary release will remain in place. The foundation issued a statement Wednesday condemning John Hinckley’s release from a psychiatric hospital. That time has increased over the years so that for more than the last year he has been allowed to spend 17 days a month at the home, which is in a gated community and overlooks a golf course. The other was that defendants acquitted by reason of insanity, far from being set free, were often confined (albeit in a mental institution where they could receive treatment) for longer than they would have been imprisoned if they had been convicted.
Friedman’s order imposes almost three dozen conditions, including a requirement that Hinckley meet his psychiatrist at least once a month and notify the Secret Service when he travels for the appointment. “If John Hinckley is haunted by anything, I think it’s that he didn’t succeed in his mission to assassinate the President”.
In his order, Friedman said Hinckley “is permitted to reside full-time in Williamsburg, Virginia, on convalescent leave, which shall begin no sooner than August”.
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But he said he also enjoyed meeting people outside St. Elizabeths, noting of his group therapy sessions: “It’s really refreshing to be in a group with people who aren’t completely out of their minds”. After all, he did shoot the president of the United States.
