John Hinckley Jr., the man who shot President Ronald Reagan, is scheduled to be released next Friday. He has been in a Washington mental hospital since 1982, when he was judged not guilty by reason of insanity.
Hinckley shot Reagan outside a hotel in Washington, D.C., in March of 1981. The defense successfully argued that he was insane (the prosecution very much disagreed), and he was sent to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in the nation’s capitol.
In 2014, Reagan White House Press Secretary James Brady, who was also shot in that attack, passed away. Police then reported that his death was ruled a homicide, as it came from the injuries he sustained during the shooting. There has been no news of charges along this line.
In 2003, a federal judge ruled that Hinckley no longer posed a serious danger to himself or others and was entitled to unsupervised visits with his parents.
Hinckley has been spending 17 days a month at his mother’s home in Virginia under strict conditions. The judge ruled Wednesday that the shooter, now 61 years old, will be permitted to reside there full-time on “convalescent leave” beginning next Friday.
Donald Trump already has a response.
Donald Trump: “John Hinckley should not have been freed.” https://t.co/6sb9J3lRqThttps://t.co/oI9EcM0aFa
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 27, 2016
Join the conversation as a VIP Member