
AP NEWSBREAK: Hinckley starts full-time life in Va. Sept. 10
WASHINGTON — The man who attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan 35 years ago will leave a Washington psychiatric hospital to live full-time in Virginia on Sept. 10, his lawyer said Thursday.
A federal judge ruled in July that 61-year-old John Hinckley Jr. is not a danger to himself or to others and can leave St. Elizabeths Hospital to live full-time at his mother’s home in Williamsburg, Virginia. At the time, Judge Paul L. Friedman ruled Hinckley could leave the hospital as soon as Aug. 5.
Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1981 shooting of Reagan, who died in 2004, his press secretary James Brady, who died in 2014, and two law enforcement officers outside a Washington hotel. In his July 27 ruling, Friedman wrote that Hinckley was a “profoundly troubled 25-year-old young man” when he shot Reagan in an effort to impress actress Jodie Foster, but he has not exhibited symptoms of major depression or psychotic disorder for more than two decades.
Friedman has gradually given Hinckley more freedom over the past decade, allowing him to spend longer and longer stretches at his mother’s home. For the past two-plus years, he has spent the majority of his time there: 17 days each month.