John Hinckley, Who Shot Ronald Reagan, to be Freed From Oversight

Courtesy: MGN

A federal judge says the man who tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan four decades ago can be released unconditionally from the restrictions he's been living under next year if he remains mentally stable.

John Hinckley Jr. was 25 when he attacked the president outside a Washington hotel in 1981. 

Jurors decided Hinckley was suffering from acute psychosis and found him not guilty by reason of insanity, saying he needed treatment and not life in prison.

Now he's 66, and he's been living in Williamsburg, Virginia, since leaving a Washington hospital five years ago.

Doctors oversee his medication and therapy.

He can’t have a gun.

And he can't travel far without informing his doctors.

Hinckley's lawyer says he no longer poses a threat.

U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman said Monday that he'll sign off on the plan this week.

The shooting also paralyzed Reagan press secretary James Brady, who died in 2014. It also injured Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and Washington police officer Thomas Delahanty.

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