John Hinckley, who shot Ronald Reagan in 1981, granted full freedom

spaminator

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John Hinckley, who shot Ronald Reagan in 1981, granted full freedom
Since leaving hospital, Hinckley has been compliant with court-ordered conditions and has remained mentally stable and asymptomatic.

Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:Jun 01, 2022 • 19 hours ago • 1 minute read • Join the conversation

A federal judge on Wednesday granted John Hinckley, the man who shot and wounded President Ronald Reagan and three others in a 1981 assassination attempt, unconditional release from the remaining restrictions he faced, U.S. media reported.


During a hearing in Washington, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman lifted travel and internet usage restrictions against Hinckley, who has been living on his own in Williamsburg, Virginia, Fox News reported. Friedman’s order will take effect on June 15, it reported.

During a hearing in September, Friedman said he would grant Hinckley unconditional release, but gave prosecutors more time to monitor Hinckley as he transitioned to living on his own following the death of his mother.

Friedman at the time said Hinckley’s mental health problems were “in remission” and he no longer posed a danger.

In 2016, Hinckley was released from a psychiatric hospital where he was treated for depression and psychosis and allowed to move into a gated community in Williamsburg to care for his elderly mother, who died in August 2021.


Since leaving the hospital, Hinckley has been compliant with court-ordered conditions and has remained mentally stable and asymptomatic, according to court documents.

“Hinckley has made no verbal threats, and he has exhibited no behaviors indicative of harm to himself, others, or the property of others. He has exhibited no disruptive or problematic behaviours,” federal prosecutors wrote to the court in support of his release.

In September, Reagan’s daughter, Patti Davis, wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post that she opposed Hinckley’s release, saying that she did not believe he feels remorse.

On March 30, 1981, Hinckley shot Reagan in an assassination attempt outside the Washington Hilton Hotel. Reagan suffered a punctured lung but recovered.

Others wounded included White House press secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and Washington police officer Thomas Delahanty.

Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity at a 1982 jury trial.
 

Tecumsehsbones

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wonder if biden is next? ;)
Have to find him first. One of the security measures we implemented after Hinckley shot Reagan was to close-hold the Presidential travel itinerary.

While the General Secretary of the Soviet Union hopped out of his limo on Connecticut Avenue and took a walk, pressing the flesh with passers-by.
 

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John Hinkley Jr. freed from court oversight after decades
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Ben Finley
Publishing date:Jun 15, 2022 • 12 hours ago • 4 minute read • Join the conversation

NORFOLK, Va. — John Hinckley Jr., who shot and wounded U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1981, was freed from court oversight Wednesday, officially concluding decades of supervision by legal and mental health professionals.

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“After 41 years 2 months and 15 days, FREEDOM AT LAST!!!,” he wrote on Twitter shortly after 12 p.m.



The lifting of all restrictions had been expected since late September. U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman in Washington said he’d free Hinckley on June 15 if he continued to remain mentally stable in the community in Virginia where he has lived since 2016.

Hinckley, who was acquitted by reason of insanity, spent the decades before that in a Washington mental hospital.

Freedom for Hinckley will include giving a concert — he plays guitar and sings — in Brooklyn, New York, that’s scheduled for July. He’s already gained nearly 30,000 followers on Twitter and YouTube in recent months as the judge loosened Hinckley’s restrictions before fully lifting all of them.

But the graying 67-year-old is far from being the household name that he became after shooting and wounding the 40th U.S. president — and several others — outside a Washington hotel. Today, historians say Hinckley is at best a question on a quiz show and someone who unintentionally helped build the Reagan legend and inspire a push for stricter gun control.


“If Hinckley had succeeded in killing Reagan, then he would have been a pivotal historical figure,” H.W. Brands, a historian and Reagan biographer, wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “As it is, he is a misguided soul whom history has already forgotten.”

Barbara A. Perry, a professor and director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, said that Hinckley “would be maybe a Jeopardy question.”

But his impact remains tangible in Reagan’s legacy.

“For the president himself to have been so seriously wounded, and to come back from that — that actually made Ronald Reagan the legend that he became … like the movie hero that he was,” Perry said.

Reagan showed grace and humour in the face of death, Perry said. After being shot, the president told emergency room doctors that he hoped they were all Republicans. He later joked to his wife Nancy that he was sorry he “forgot to duck.”


When the president first spoke to Congress after the shooting, he looked “just a little bit thinner, but he’s still the robust cowboy that is Ronald Reagan,” Perry said.

The assassination attempt paralyzed Reagan press secretary James Brady, who died in 2014.

In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed into law the Brady Bill, which required a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks of prospective buyers. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence are named after Brady and his wife Sarah.

The shooting also injured Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and Washington police officer Thomas Delahanty.

McCarthy told the AP last year that he didn’t “have a lot of good Christian thoughts” about Hinckley.


“But in any case, I hope they’re right,” McCarthy, then 72, said of Hinckley’s impending release from supervision. “Because the actions of this man could have changed the course of history.”

Hinckley was 25 and suffering from acute psychosis when he shot Reagan and the others. When jurors found him not guilty by reason of insanity, they said he needed treatment and not a lifetime in confinement. He was ordered to live at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington.

In the 2000s, Hinckley began making visits to his parents’ home in a gated Williamsburg community. A 2016 court order granted him permission to live with his mom full time, albeit under various restrictions, after experts said his mental illness had been in remission for decades.


Hinckley’s mother died in July. He signed a lease on a one-bedroom apartment in the area last year and began living there with his cat, Theo, according to court filings.

Stephen J. Morse, a University of Pennsylvania professor of law and psychiatry, told the AP last year that Hinckley’s acquittal by reason of insanity means “he is not to blame for those terrible things that happened and he cannot be punished.”

“If he hadn’t attempted to kill President Reagan, this guy would have been released ages ago,” Morse said.

But the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute said in a statement last year that it was “saddened” by the court’s plan, stating that “we believe John Hinckley is still a threat to others.”


Friedman, the federal judge overseeing Hinckley’s case, said on June 1 that Hinckley has shown no signs of active mental illness since the mid-1980s and has exhibited no violent behavior or interest in weapons.

He noted that lawyers for the government and Hinckley fought for years over whether Hinckley should be given increasing amounts of freedom. But the government’s lawyers eventually did not oppose Hinckley’s unconditional release.

“It took us a long time to get here,” he said, adding that there is now unanimous agreement: “This is the time to let John Hinckley move on with his life, so we will.”
 

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NYC guitar concert by Hinckley, who shot Reagan, is canceled
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Karen Matthews
Publishing date:Jun 16, 2022 • 16 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation

NEW YORK — A planned concert by John Hinckley Jr., who shot and wounded President Ronald Reagan in 1981, has been canceled even as Hinckley was freed from federal court oversight, the New York City venue that had booked the performance announced.


The Market Hotel in Brooklyn cited “very real and worsening threats and hate” in its announcement on social media Wednesday that it was canceling the July 8 concert.

The now 67-year-old Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the March 30, 1981, shooting of Reagan in Washington.

Reagan was seriously wounded in the assassination attempt, and his press secretary, James Brady, was permanently disabled.

Brady went on to campaign for gun safety legislation until his death in 2014. The Brady Bill that passed in 1993 required a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks of prospective buyers, and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence are named after Brady and his wife, Sarah.


Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and Washington police Officer Thomas Delahanty were also wounded in the shooting, which was motivated by Hinckley’s obsession with the actor Jodie Foster.

Hinckley spent decades in a psychiatric hospital before being released to live with his mother in 2016. He was freed from court oversight as of Wednesday, writing on Twitter, “After 41 years 2 months and 15 days, FREEDOM AT LAST!!!”

In recent years, Hinckley has released songs on Spotify and posted videos of himself singing and playing a guitar on YouTube.

Several public performances had been planned following Hinckley’s release from court supervision, but venues in Chicago and in Hamden, Connecticut, had already canceled Hinckley appearances when the Market Hotel announced that the concert it had scheduled would not take place.

“There was a time when a place could host a thing like this, maybe a little offensive, and the reaction would be, ‘It’s just a guy playing a show, who does it hurt — it’s a free country,”‘ the Market Hotel said on Instagram. “We aren’t living in that kind of free country anymore, for better or for worse.”

Hinckley tweeted Thursday that his promoter was looking for another venue.
 

spaminator

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NYC guitar concert by Hinckley, who shot Reagan, is canceled
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Karen Matthews
Publishing date:Jun 16, 2022 • 16 hours ago • 2 minute read • Join the conversation

NEW YORK — A planned concert by John Hinckley Jr., who shot and wounded President Ronald Reagan in 1981, has been canceled even as Hinckley was freed from federal court oversight, the New York City venue that had booked the performance announced.


The Market Hotel in Brooklyn cited “very real and worsening threats and hate” in its announcement on social media Wednesday that it was canceling the July 8 concert.

The now 67-year-old Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the March 30, 1981, shooting of Reagan in Washington.

Reagan was seriously wounded in the assassination attempt, and his press secretary, James Brady, was permanently disabled.

Brady went on to campaign for gun safety legislation until his death in 2014. The Brady Bill that passed in 1993 required a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks of prospective buyers, and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence are named after Brady and his wife, Sarah.


Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and Washington police Officer Thomas Delahanty were also wounded in the shooting, which was motivated by Hinckley’s obsession with the actor Jodie Foster.

Hinckley spent decades in a psychiatric hospital before being released to live with his mother in 2016. He was freed from court oversight as of Wednesday, writing on Twitter, “After 41 years 2 months and 15 days, FREEDOM AT LAST!!!”

In recent years, Hinckley has released songs on Spotify and posted videos of himself singing and playing a guitar on YouTube.

Several public performances had been planned following Hinckley’s release from court supervision, but venues in Chicago and in Hamden, Connecticut, had already canceled Hinckley appearances when the Market Hotel announced that the concert it had scheduled would not take place.

“There was a time when a place could host a thing like this, maybe a little offensive, and the reaction would be, ‘It’s just a guy playing a show, who does it hurt — it’s a free country,”‘ the Market Hotel said on Instagram. “We aren’t living in that kind of free country anymore, for better or for worse.”

Hinckley tweeted Thursday that his promoter was looking for another venue.
wonder if his music career will be given a shot? ;)
 
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