Hinckley is likely to be busy.
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Hinckley could be released as early as August 5 and will have to live full-time with his mother in Williamsburg, Virginia, under certain restrictions. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
President Reagan was the target of an assassination attempt outside the Washington Hilton hotel.
“There is no evidence that Mr. Hinckley is an elopement risk, despite hundreds of opportunities to elope during his visits to Williamsburg and trips outside the hospital over the last twenty or more years”, the judge wrote, explaining his decision not to require an ankle bracelet or vehicle tracking devices. Recent court proceedings found that he no longer presented a threat to anyone.
Hinckley now spends 17 days a month at his mother’s home.
Numerous restrictions attached to Hinckley’s temporary release will remain in place. He still has to attend therapy sessions and come for regular checkups in Washington.
Hinckley was permitted several hours of free time to explore the city, although he was under surveillance by the U.S. Secret Service and required to keep a cell phone with him that could be tracked.
The ruling ends the institutionalization of the one of the nation’s most notorious mental health patients, whose case marked a watershed in the criminal justice system’s handling of mental illness and gun violence.
He will have to reside with his mother for a year. COULD EVENTUALLY LIVE ON HIS OWN If his treatment team approves, he may then move into his own residence by himself or with roommates, Friedman said.
So Hinkley, now 61, gets to go home and live with his mom.
Patti Davis says in a lengthy statement on her website that she will “forever be haunted” by the day her father nearly died in 1981.
In a statement to ABC News, Barry Levine, Hinckley’s attorney, said in part that they are “gratified” by the decision.
Hinckley shot President Ronald Reagan and three others, including presidential press secretary James Brady, in 1981.
The court order requires that Hinckley “shall have no contact whatsoever” with specific individuals, including actress Jodie Foster.
Reaction to his release was mixed.
The Reagan foundation reacted sharply, tweeting that Hinckley is “still a threat to others”.
When Brady passed away in 2014, his death was ruled a homicide and deemed to be directly related to the gunshot wound he suffered in the 1981 assassination attempt.
She was a student at Yale University at the time, and said that Hinckley had written her numerous letters before the shooting.
The judge says he knew he opened the door to this possibility over the years. “But virtually all Americans should be outraged that it will be just as easy for Jim’s would-be killer to buy a gun today than it was 35 years ago”. “How can he be allowed to roam the streets as if nothing happened?”
“Hinckley, Jr. was a profoundly troubled twenty-five-year-old young man suffering from active and acute psychosis and major depression”, Friedman writes, explaining the condition resulted in a deep obsession with Foster and the film Taxi Driver. During his time in Williamsburg, he drives himself around town in a Toyota Avalon, going to movies and eating at fast-food restaurants. He enjoys painting and photography and cares for feral cats.
“It made me feel awkward and uncomfortable”, he said.
Prosecutors, however, have argued against increased freedoms for Hinckley, saying he has a history of being deceptive.
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Officials at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Southeast Washington joined Hinckley’s request to be set free and treated as an outpatient, with conditions.
