The man who shot and almost killed US President Ronald Reagan in 1981, John Hinckley Jr, will be released unconditionally in June from psychiatric supervision, according to a US Court.
Prosecutors, Hinckley's legal team, and mental health experts had convinced a judge that the 67-year-old is now in a sound mental state, per CBS News.
Hinckley shot Reagan as the president was exiting a Washington hotel on March 30, 1981, puncturing a lung and causing severe internal bleeding. Three others were also wounded. He was found not guilty because of insanity in 1982 and remained hospitalized until 2006. He was allowed to live with his mother in 2016.
Hinckley suffered from acute psychosis when he shot the president and had developed an obsession with the actress Jodie Foster, believing the attack would impress her.
Judge Paul L. Friedman of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia announced in September that he would release Hinckley from all remaining limitations on June 15 if he continued to do well in the Virginia neighborhood where he has lived for years, as per a Forbes Advocate report.
Hinckley Passed All Tests
During a one-hour hearing in Washington on Wednesday, Friedman said Hinckley has continued to do well. The judge made no revisions to his plans for total freedom from court supervision.
Friedman noted that Hinckley has been "scrutinized" and "passed every test."
"He's no longer a danger to himself or others," Friedman said during the hearing.
Friedman spent much of the session talking about the case's "long" route, which he was assigned at random two decades ago as the case's third judge.
A Deeply Troubled Individual Back Then
He said Hinckley was deeply troubled when he shot Reagan but has received mental health care. The judge noted that Hinckley had shown no evidence of active mental illness since the mid-1980s and has demonstrated no violent behavior or interest in weaponry.
After a jury ruled him not guilty because of insanity in the attempted assassination of Reagan, Hinckley was confined to a mental institution in Washington for more than 20 years.
In 2003, Friedman began allowing Hinckley to spend greater and longer periods in the community, with conditions such as attending therapy and limitations on where he may roam. He's been living in Virginia full-time since 2016, but he's still subject to restrictions.
Reagan survived the assassination on March 30, 1981, but his press assistant, James Brady, who died in 2014, was partially paralyzed. Timothy McCarthy, a Secret Service agent, and Thomas Delahanty, a Washington police officer, were also injured. Reagan passed away in 2004.
Hinckley began paying trips to his parents' house in Williamsburg, Virginia, in the 2000s, with the judge's permission. His father died in 2008, but he was allowed to live with his mother full-time in 2016.
Despite this, he was obliged to attend individual, and group therapy sessions, was prohibited from speaking to the press and was restricted to a specific travel region. Periodically, the Secret Service would track him.
In 2021, Hinckley's mother passed away. He has since left her residence and has generated money in recent years by selling stuff at an antique mall and selling books online, according to an Australian Associated Press news story published on Yahoo! News.
On his YouTube account, Hinckley announced the launch of his own record company, Emporia Records, with his first release being a 14-song CD of his music. He also uses Twitter to promote his work.