Unconditional Release of Reagan's Would-Be Assassin to Be Weighed
John Hinckley Jr., 66, left a psychiatric hospital in 2016 and has lived under increasingly fewer restrictions in a house along a golf course in Virginia
By Ben Finley ••
NBC Universal, Inc.
It’s been four decades since the attempt on President Ronald Reagan’s life. News4’s Pat Collins looks back on March 30, 1981: the day that shook the country.
A court hearing has been set for Aug. 30 regarding whether the man who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981 can live without restrictions in the home he shares with his mother and brother in a gated community in Virginia.
U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman set the late summer date during a teleconference Thursday that included John Hinckley Jr.'s attorney and a federal prosecutor.
Barry Levine, Hinckley’s lawyer, has been arguing for Hinckley’s unconditional release and points to a recent risk assessment that says Hinckley is stable and unlikely to reoffend.
Corbis via Getty Images
President Ronald Reagan smiles and waves as he leaves the Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington D.C., March 30, 1981. Among those pictured are, from second left, Secret Service agent Jerry Parr, White House press secretary James Brady, Reagan, White House Deputy chief of staff Michael Deaver, an unidentified policeman, policeman Thomas Delahanty and Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy (right). Reagan, Brady, Delahanty, and McCarthy were all shot in the attempt.
Ron Edmonds/AP
President Ronald Reagan is shoved into the presidential state car by secret service agents after a 25-year-old gunman attempted to assassinate him outside a Washington, D.C., hotel, March 30, 1981.
Richard Drew/AP
Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy takes bullets intended for President Ronald Reagan, March 30, 1981, after the president left the Washington Hilton. Behind the limousine door, lead agent Jerry Parr shoves the stricken president into the car.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Police officers and Secret Service agents dive to protect President Ronald Reagan amid a panicked crowd during an assassination attempt by a 25-year-old gunamn outside the Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington D.C., March 30, 1981.
Ron Edmonds/AP
An unidentified secret agent yells orders with his weapon drawn after a 25-year-old gunman fired at President Ronald Reagan, March 30, 1981, outside a Washington, D.C., hotel.
Ron Edmonds/AP
White House press secretary James Brady lies on the sidewalk outside a Washington hotel after he was shot during an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, March 30, 1981.
Dirck Halstead/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images
Armed Secret Service agents surround D.C. policeman Thomas K Delahanty and White House press secretary James Brady outside the Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington D.C., March 30, 1981. Both were shot during an attempt, by John Hinkley Jr, to assassinate President Ronald Reagan; also injured were Reagan and Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy.
Mike Evens/AFP via Getty Images
Police and Secret Service agents react during the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. Reagan was hit by one of six shots fired by John Hinckley, who also seriously injured press secretary James Brady. Reagan was hit in the chest and was hospitalized for 12 days.
Ron Edmonds/AP
First responders load Secret Service agent Timothy J. McCarthy into an ambulance after he was shot during an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan outside a Washington, D.C., hotel on March 30, 1981.
AP
Vice President George Bush, followed by White House chief of staff Edwin Meese III, arrives for an appearance before reporters at the White House in Washington, D.C. on March 30, 1981. The vice president interrupted a trip to Texas and returned to Washington after the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.
Charles Tasnadi/AP
Two people hang a sign on a building near the George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, March 31, 1981, where President Ronald Reagan is being treated for gunshot wounds he received on Monday in Washington.
Wolfgang Rattay/AP
A woman reads a Munich newspaper carrying the headline “Reagan in danger after attempt on his life!” in West Germany, March 31, 1981. The attempted assassination of the president of the United States was the number one story in Munich’s media.
White House via AP
President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan seen for the first time in photos on April 3, 1981, at the George Washington University Hospital after a 25-year-old gunman attempted to assassinate the president.
Jeff Taylor/AP
Five members of the jury, which found John Hinckley Jr. not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting of President Ronald Reagan, testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Criminal Law subcommittee on Capitol Hill, June 24, 1982. The panel held a hearing to study the insanity defense. From left: Glynis Lassiter, Lawrence Coffey, Woodrow Johnson, Maryland Copelin, and Nathalia Brown.
Ira Schwartz/AP
John Hinckley, Jr. peers from a car window after a court appearance in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 4, 1984. A federal judge refused to give Hinckley uncensored access to telephone and reporters, and also refused Hinckley’s request that he be allowed to walk around his hospital grounds for an hour a day.
Doug Mills/AP
With an emotional James Brady in the foreground, President Bill Clinton speaks in the East Room of the White House, Nov. 30, 1993, prior to Clinton signing the Brady bill. The bill, named after Brady, the former White House Press Secretary who was shot and injured during the 1981 assassinated attempt on Ronald Reagan, requires a five-day waiting period and background check on handgun buyers.
Marcy Nighswander/AP
President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Bill in the East Room of the White House, Nov. 30, 1993. Looking on is former press secretary James Brady, Vice President Al Gore and Attorney General Janet Reno.
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The exact details of what unconditional release would mean for Hinckley were not discussed during Thursday's teleconference. But the U.S. government opposes unconditional release, according to a brief filed with the court in early May. The government is also having its own expert examine Hinckley to determine “whether or not he would pose a danger to himself or others.”
Hinckley, 66, left a Washington psychiatric hospital in 2016 and has been living under increasingly fewer restrictions in a house that sits along a golf course in Williamsburg.
For instance, the judge ruled in October that Hinckley can publicly display his writings, artwork and music under his own name. Hinckley also is allowed to move out of his mother's house and live within 75 miles of Williamsburg, if doctors approve.
But several conditions remain in place. For instance, Hinckley cannot possess a gun or contact Jodie Foster, the actress he was trying to impress when he shot and wounded Reagan in 1981.
Hinckley also cannot knowingly travel to areas where there is someone who is protected by the U.S. Secret Service.
Hinckley was 25 when he shot the 40th U.S. president outside a Washington hotel. The shooting also paralyzed press secretary James Brady and injured two others.
Hinckley was suffering from acute psychosis and was obsessed with Foster. When jurors found him not guilty by reason of insanity, they said he needed treatment, not a lifetime in confinement.
Last summer, a new risk assessment was conducted and found Hinckley to be at low risk for another psychotic episode. It also suggested “a low likelihood that he will reoffend with a violent crime over the short and long term.”
The assessment also quotes mental health professionals who indicated support for his unconditional release. Hinckley is quoted as saying that it would free him from driving to Washington for in-person meetings with the city’s Department of Behavioral Health.
Hinckley said he would have more free time if he no longer has to check in by telephone and complete daily activity logs.
″[N]ot a whole lot would change,” Hinckley is quoted as saying.
He plans to continue to live in the Williamsburg area, attend group therapy sessions and take his current psychiatric medications, the assessment stated.
Hinckley's attorneys wrote in an April court filing that his mother is in declining health. And they hoped an unconditional release order “might be entered while Mrs. Hinckley can appreciate it.”
Levine, Hinckley’s attorney, raised the issue again during Thursday's call with the judge.
“Mr. Hinckley's mother is in something of a rapid decline,” Levine told the judge. “It's been my hope that this would have come to a conclusion while she could enjoy the fruits of it, but maybe not. Maybe not.”
