There is no question that he was nuttier than a fruitcake, back in the day. It also seems that 30 years of treatment has managed to stabilize his condition. It seems that he has a girlfriend now, a fellow patient at the facility they both occupied for years.John Hinckley, Jr. who shot former President Ronald Reagan in 1981 was found to be insane and has spent majority of his years in a mental facility after conviction.
There had been conflicting views with regard to his conviction. While psychiatric reports listed him as insane, the prosecution still believed he was sane enough in legal terms to serve his sentence in jail.
Hinckley's attorneys have been working for the past 10 years to free him. Finally in December 2013, a recommendation to free him was granted by U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman.
From 10 days per month, Hinckley will now be allowed to leave prison for 17 days per month to stay with his mother in Williamsburg, Virginia. Judge Friedman also issued a 29-point order laying out the conditions of Hinckley's release.
This included the terms about Hinckley's travel, volunteer work, Internet use, strolls within the subdivision, medication and therapy. Hinckley can now roam around unsupervised as long as he avoids government centers and has a GPS-enabled mobile phone with him all the time.
There's a message here worth thinking on.
The article does, inadvertently, highlight the sloppiness of reporters. Hinckley isn't in prison. He's been a mental patient at St. Elizabeth's hospital for all these years.
ReplyDeleteSure, he's stable now, with the government and/or his mom to make sure he takes his meds. We'll see how long that lasts.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. The one place where my staunch libertarian cred gets shaky is insane people who are a danger to others.
ReplyDeleteThe issues with crazy people going postal and killing others didn't happen back in the day, not because there weren't crazy people, but because they were institutionalized.
Is that a bad or a good thing?
I don't really know. I don't have the experience with crazy to really be a god judge.
But I do know that there is a lot of Ron White in me when it comes to this discussion. if you're the sort of crazy person who's crazy causes you to hurt other people, it sucks to be you, because we're going to lock you up for it. Whether its your fault or not.
Wait until he hears what Obama was doing with Jodie Foster...
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