John Hinckley Jr. to Be Unconditionally Released in June – The New York Times

A federal judge agreed on Monday to lift all remaining restrictions on John W. Hinckley Jr., who tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1981, next year if he stays mentally stable and continues to follow the conditions that he has been living under, prosecutors said.

Judge Paul L. Friedman, during a hearing in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, said he would issue his written order on the plan this week, his office said.

“If he hadn’t tried to kill the president, he would have been unconditionally released a long, long, long time ago,” The Associated Press quoted the judge as saying during the hearing. “But everybody is comfortable now after all of the studies, all of the analysis and all of the interviews, and all of the experience with Mr. Hinckley.”

At the hearing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia said it would agree to Mr. Hinckley’s unconditional release in June 2022 “if he continues to comply with the conditions of his current release order and maintains his mental stability between now and then,” Bill Miller, a spokesman for the office, said in a statement.

Barry Levine, a lawyer for Mr. Hinckley, 66, said in a telephone interview that he and prosecutors had agreed before the hearing on the unconditional release and that Judge Friedman granted their joint request. He said the reason to wait until June was related to two major events in Mr. Hinckley’s life: Mr. Hinckley’s mother died in July, and his therapist is retiring in January 2022.

“The court wants to just see how he does,” Mr. Levine said.

For the decision to be reviewed again would require prosecutors to file a new motion and show that previous terms of the release had been violated, such as traveling more than 75 miles from Williamsburg, Va., without telling the court, Mr. Levine said

“It is self-executing,” Mr. Levine said. “The judge will pick what day it will be.”

After seeing the 1976 film “Taxi Driver,” Mr. Hinckley began to identify with the main character, who plots to assassinate a presidential candidate. Mr. Hinckley became fixated on Jodie Foster, who played a child prostitute in the movie, and moved to New Haven, Conn., to be close to her when she started to attend Yale University.

After the 1980 election, Mr. Hinckley stalked President Reagan in an attempt to impress Ms. Foster. In 1981, he wrote a letter to Ms. Foster describing his plan to kill the president, and …….

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/27/us/john-hinckley-reagan-assassination-attempt-release.html