The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute issued a press release in reaction to the release of John Hinckley, Jr., who attempted to assassinate President Reagan in 1981.
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The court order places dozens of detailed conditions on Hinckley’s “full-time convalescent leave” from St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, including a ban on contact with Foster, but said they can be phased out after a year to 18 months if he continues to make progress.
That’s because according to a Washington, D.C. judge, shooter John Hinckley, Jr. is once again suited for society and will be released from his mental hospital effective Wednesday.
The court order also says Hinckley is barred from communicating with members of Reagan’s family, or any member of the family of James Brady, Reagan’s press secretary who suffered permanent brain damage during the shooting.
The scene outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington DC moments after John Hinckley opens fire on President Reagan.
Hinckley was obsessed with the movie “Taxi Driver” and its then young star, Jodie Foster, who played a child prostitute in the film. That time has increased over the years so that for the past two-plus years he has been allowed to spend 17 days a month at the house overlooking a golf course in a gated community. But for the last decade or so, courts have gradually been allowing John Hinckley more freedom.
After Foster entered Yale University, Hinckley moved to New Haven to be close to her and left notes, letters, and poems at her dormitory.
The Hinckley verdict also led several states to rewrite their laws making it more hard to use the insanity defense.
However, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation condemned the release.
He has been confined to Saint Elizabeth’s hospital and allowed extended monthly supervised visits at his mother’s home.
Margaret Fowler has lived in Kingsmill for 10 years, and said she has no problem with Hinckley living in the neighborhood, although she worries about what will happen to him after his 90-year-old mother dies.
But Hinckley attorney Barry Levine has argued since 2003 that evaluations by the hospital’s officials showed that he no longer posed any threat.
“With respect to mental illness, it’s not viewed the way it might have been 30 or 40 years ago. and I don’t think it is problematic at all”, Gould said.
As a condition of his release, Hinckley must complete a daily log of his activities while on leave, detailing his work or volunteer hours, social interactions, treatments, errands and recreational activities.
After his death in 2014 at the age of 73, an autopsy ruled Brady’s his cause of death to be homicide.
Hinckley may have overcome the psychological problems that led him to attempt the assassination.
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“From now until the day he dies, the Secret Service will be part of his life”, said former Secret Service agent Dan Emmet.
