A federal judge ruled Wednesday that John Hinckley Jr., who was convicted for the assassination attempt on U.S President Ronald Reagan in 1981, will be released after being held at a mental hospital for 35 years.
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Hinckley began to identify with the film’s main character, Travis Bickle, who planned to assassinate a presidential candidate, and spent several years trying to make contact with Foster, who was a student at Yale University in CT.
The court said experts found Hinckley’s major depression and psychotic disorder “are in full and sustained remission and have been for more than 20 years” and that he is “clinically ready” to leave the hospital.
“I hope they are right that they’re releasing a man who murdered one person, Jim Brady, and nearly killed the president of the United States”, McCarthy said.
Hinckley will be released from the psychiatric facility where he had been imprisoned for several decades.
He also will be barred from trying to contact Foster, all relatives of Reagan and Brady or the other two victims, police officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy, and their families. Friedman’s ruling comes more than 35 years after the March 30, 1981, shooting outside a Washington hotel in which Reagan and three others were injured. After all, he did shoot the president of the United States. A judge says Hinckley, who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan will be.
“Contrary to the judge’s decision, we believe John Hinckley is still a threat to others and we strongly oppose his release”, it said in a statement. He spends time painting and likes photography and also takes cares of feral cats. “It made me feel awkward and uncomfortable”, he said. During his time in Williamsburg, he drives himself around town in a Toyota Avalon, going to movies and eating at fast-food restaurants.
Friedman’s order imposes dozens of conditions, including a requirement that Hinckley meet with his psychiatrist in Washington at least once a month and notify the Secret Service when he travels for the appointment. According to court records, he has said it was hard for him to ask for jobs at Starbucks and Subway while being followed by the Secret Service: “It made me feel awkward and uncomfortable”. “He has worked hard with his mental health providers and I believe the disease from which he suffered years and years and years ago no longer plagues him”.
And although Hinckley faces many restrictions and a highly vetted life, many do not deem the judge’s decision just.
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”.
Scroll through the slides to see the fate of those involved in presidential assassination attempts.
But unless he violates the conditions of his leave, he won’t return to St. Elizabeths, despite opposition by prosecutors to greater freedom for the would-be assassin.
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Reagan, who had emergency surgery after the shooting but was back to work within a month, died in 2004 at age 93.
