Reagan shooter John Hinckley to receive unconditional release
CBSN
John Hinckley Jr., the man who shot President Reagan in 1981 in an attempt to assassinate him, will receive unconditional release in June 2022 if he complies with current restrictions, according to a ruling by a District of Columbia federal judge Monday.
Hinckley, who was 25 years old when he shot Mr. Reagan, was suffering from acute psychosis and believed killing the president would attract the attention of actress Jodie Foster, with whom he was obsessed. Jurors found Hinckley not guilty by reason of insanity. The verdict committed him to live at St. Elizabeths, a Washington, D.C., hospital for the mentally ill.
His lawyers argued that he no longer poses a threat to anyone, and District Court Judge Paul Friedman noted few patients at St Elizabeth's Hospital have been studied more thoroughly than Hinckley, who was granted weeks-long stays with his family beginning in 2007 and was released conditionally in 2016. Since then, he has been continued to be monitored, and Friedman said that "there has been no indication of any problems."
