For would-be Reagan assassin, freedom only days away

John Hinckley Jr., the man who tried to assassinate US President Ronald Reagan, is to be released from a psychiatric hospital next month after 35 years.

Hinckley shot Reagan and three others, including presidential press secretary James Brady, in 1981.

John Hinckley Jr. has already been living with his 90-year-old mother at her home overlooking a golf course in Williamsburg, Virginia, for 17 days each month.

U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman in Washington, D.C., ruled earlier Wednesday that Hinckley should be released from a psychiatric hospital and be allowed to live with his mother in Williamsburg, Virginia. He is not 61 years old and suffers from arthritis and high blood pressure. Friedman also found that the preponderance of evidence on potential danger for others and/or Hinckley himself shows that “Mr. Hinckley presents no danger to himself or to others in the reasonable future”. Also wounded were police Officer Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy. He will have to attend individual and group therapy sessions and is barred from talking to the media.

Reagan at a hospital in Washington alongside his wife Nancy, after the assassination attempt by John Hinckley. Hinckley’s release, however, comes with a cost. If he does well he can then live alone.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump also weighed in on the judge’s decision Wednesday, telling reporters at an unrelated news conference that Hinckley should not be freed.

Hinckley was permitted several hours of free time to explore the city, although he was under surveillance by the U.S. Secret Service and required to keep a cell phone with him that could be tracked.

Hinckley lawyer Barry Levine did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While Reagan’s daughter Patti Davis says she’s forgiven Hinckley, she thinks he should remain detained in the mental hospital.

His new guardian, Davis writes, “shouldn’t cramp his style too much, given her age and infirmities”.

Unfortunately, anyone who followed this case knew that the day would come when the justice system would permanently release would-be Ronald Reagan assassin John Hinckley from his medical detention, thanks to the success of his insanity plea in 1981.

Hinckley’s Williamsburg psychiatrist, Deborah Giorgi-Guarnieri, told the court that he has “always been perfect” keeping on his medications, and that his “insights into his illness have improved” during the past five years. According to court records and testimony at a recent court hearing on the issue of his release, he has spent time volunteering at a church as well as a local mental hospital. Brady’s death in 2014 was attributed to his wounds but federal prosecutors said the following year they would not charge Hinckley with his murder.