In Our View | What Message? Judge orders would-be Reagan assassin released without conditions

In 1981, John Hinckley Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan and White House Press Secretary James Brady, as well as a Secret Service agent and a Washington D.C. police officer.

Reagan and the agent recovered. Th officer suffered permanent nerve damage. Brady was left paralyzed. His death in 2014 was ruled a homicide directly related to the 1981 shooting.

Hinckley, who claimed he fired the shots to impress actress Jodie Foster, was tried and found not guilty by reason of insanity. He spent most of the next 30 years confined to St. Elizabeth's, a Washington psychiatric hospital. Beginning in 1999 he was allowed visits to his parents' home in Williamsburg, Virginia. He was granted more privileges over the years until 2016, when a judge allowed his conditional release to his mother's care, saying he was no longer a threat to himself or others.

In 2018 he was permitted to live on his own, still subject to certain conditions. Among them, he was not allowed to possess firearms or ammunition, consume alcohol, contact Foster or his victims families, speak to the press, access violent entertainment or pornography and was required to hold a job and record his web browser history.

Now comes word that a federal judge has ordered Hinckley's unconditional release next year. That means he will no longer be under any restrictions or supervision.

"If he hadn't tried to kill a president, he would have been in unconditional release long, long ago," U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman said in his ruling.

That's probably true. But the fact remains Hinckley did try and kill a president. And very nearly succeeded.

We imagine many Americans will be troubled by Hinckley's unconditional release and question the judge's ruling. What kind of message does it send? We share their concerns.

But he wasn't convicted and sentenced to life. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and it's within the judge's power to order he be released without restrictions.

We just hope the judge doesn't come to regret that decision.

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