(Reuters) – John Hinckley Jr., who wounded U.S. President Ronald Reagan and three other people in a 1981 assassination attempt prompted by a deranged obsession with actress Jodie Foster, can be freed from a psychiatric hospital to live with his mother, a federal judge ruled yesterday.
U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said Hinckley, 61, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in a 1982 trial, no longer posed a danger to himself or others.
He ruled Hinckley could be released from St. Elizabeth’s, a government psychiatric hospital in Washington, as soon as Aug. 5, subject to dozens of conditions intended to ensure he is adequately monitored.
“Since 1983, when he last attempted suicide, he has displayed no symptoms of active mental illness, exhibited no violent behavior, shown no interest in weapons, and demonstrated no suicidal ideation,” Friedman said of Hinckley in a 103-page opinion.
In addition to Reagan, Hinckley’s attack wounded presidential press secretary James Brady, a policeman and a Secret Service agent.
The shooting helped launch the modern gun control movement, as Brady and his wife, Sarah, founded what is now known as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence after he was left permanently disabled.
The Bradys’ support helped the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act become law in 1993, imposing federal background checks on gun purchases and a five-day waiting period.The Hinckley verdict also led several states to rewrite their laws making it more difficult to use the insanity defense, while the U.S. Secret Service significantly tightened its protocols for presidential security.
Yesterday’s decision drew criticism from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, which said the family strongly opposed Hinckley’s release and believed he still poses a threat to others.
In a statement, the Brady Campaign did not specifically attack Hinckley’s release but noted that gun control laws remain toothless more than three decades after the shooting.
“Virtually all Americans should be outraged that it will be just as easy for Jim’s would-be killer to buy a gun today as it was 35 years ago,” the group said. “This decision will only redouble our resolve at the Brady Campaign to expand background checks to every gun sale and end the horror of gun violence that takes 90 lives every single day.”
Foster has refused to comment publicly on Hinckley since 1981 and a publicist for the Academy Award-winning actress did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Upon his admission to St. Elizabeth’s, doctors diagnosed Hinckley with depression and psychosis – two maladies they now say have been in remission for years.
Friedman said Hinckley will be required to spend at least a year living with his mother, Jo Ann, 90, in Williamsburg, Virginia, about 130 miles (210 km) south of Washington, where he has been making increasingly long furlough visits for several years.
