WASHINGTON – John W. Hinckley Jr. will be released from a government psychiatric hospital more than 35 years after he attempted to assassinate president Ronald Reagan and shot three others outside the Washington Hilton on March 30, 1981, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
Hinckley, 61, no longer poses a danger to himself or others and will be freed to live full-time with his mother in Williamsburg, Va., effective as soon as Aug. 5 subject to dozens of temporary treatment and monitoring conditions, U.S. District Judge Paul L Friedman of Washington wrote.
If Hinckley adheres to all restrictions, they could begin to be phased out after 12 to 18 months, removing him from court control for the first time since he was confined to St. Elizabeth’s hospital after the shooting, according to the order.
Hinckley lived at the hospital full time until the 1990s, when he was permitted supervised visits with family members that gradually have been extended to 17 days a month at the home of his 90-year-old mother in a gated golf course development.
If Hinckley relapses or violates the terms of his “convalescent leave,” he could be returned to St. Elizabeth’s, the judge ordered.
The order limits Hinckley to a 50-mile radius of Williamsburg, Va., requires him to turn over information about his mobile phone and vehicles he will be driving, and bars him from accessing social media, uploading any content or erasing any browser history from his computer.
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. His case came at a crossroads of presidential history, violence and celebrity, with extraordinary footage of the attack on the 40th president beamed into the homes of Americans in television news accounts.
Hinckley was 25 when he wounded Reagan, press secretary James Brady, U.S. Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy and D.C. police officer Thomas Delahanty with six exploding “Devastator” bullets from a .22-caliber pistol. All survived the attack but Brady was left paralyzed by a shot to his head and spent years before his death in 2014 advocating for gun control.
Hinckley said he shot Reagan to try to impress Hollywood actor Jodie Foster, an object of his obsession after repeated viewing the film, “Taxi Driver.”
After an eight-week trial, a federal jury in Washington found Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity in June 1982 of all 13-counts against him, setting off a sharp public backlash. The federal government and 38 states subsequently rewrote laws to raise the standard of proof required for the insanity defense, which is now rarely used and is even more rarely successful.
Over the decades, the federal court has received reports on the state of Hinckley’s mental health, and the Secret Service continued to watch him closely as he spent more time outside the hospital, tracking him on more than 200 occasions in 2013 and 2014, according to information presented in court last year.
Since 2003, Hinckley’s longtime attorney, Barry Wm. Levine has argued to lift Hinckley’s confinement citing evaluations by St. Elizabeth’s officials that he no longer posed a threat.
Hinckley is under court orders not to speak with reporters, and his family would not comment on his impending release, Levine said Wednesday. But Levine called the release “a success story for the mental health system and for the courts.”
“Mr. Hinckley recognizes that what he did was horrific. But it’s crucial to understand that what he did was not an act of evil. It was an act caused by mental illness,” Levine said. “He is profoundly sorry and he wishes he could take back that day, but he can’t. And he has lived for decades recognizing the pain he caused his victims, their families, and the nation.”
Bill Miller, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips of Washington, said the office was reviewing the judge’s opinion and had no comment.
Reagan died in 2004 at the age of 90 after suffering from Alzheimer’s for a decade. Reagan’s children, Ron Reagan Jr. and Patti Reagan Davis, have opposed release, saying they do not trust Hinckley because of his past deceptions.
“I hope the doctors are right when they say that John Hinckley isn’t a danger to anyone, but something in me feels they are wrong,” Davis said on her web site in April 2015.
Medical examiners ruled Brady’s death in August 2014 a homicide resulting from the wound in the shooting. Prosecutors declined to bring new charges, citing legal barriers including that a jury already had previously reached a verdict against Hinckley.
Prosecutors long had argued that Hinckley’s release was a “calculated risk” given instances of deceptive behavior during even his limited trips away from the hospital.
Prosecutors had objected that twice in Williamsburg in 2011, when Hinckley told doctors he went to a movie, he instead went to a nearby bookstore and a fast-food restaurant. One of those times, a trailing Secret Service agent said that Hinckley briefly stood in front of a section of the bookstore that included several items about Reagan and the shooting.
