Dateline: John Hinckley - Diary of a Dangerous Mind

"For the first time on television, Dateline NBC will reveal recently uncovered pages from John Hinckley Jr.’s diary, which he began writing after he was arrested for trying to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. Special NBC News Correspondent Troy Roberts reports." 

Source:NBC News with a look at John W. Hinckley JR.

From Dateline

So I saw this documentary last night on Oxygen and this is why I'm talking about it today. As well as the fact that it's another slow news day in Washington and I have literally nothing better and more interesting to talk about on The New Democrat right now. I guess beautiful, warm weather, can bring news to a sudden stop in the nation's capital. 

I'm just going to give the the interesting chapters in this documentary one-by-one and tell you what I think about them. 

1. So before John Hinckley could ever get to trial for the attempted assassination of President Ronald W. Reagan, they first had a hearing in Washington to determine Hinckley's sanity. He thought he should try to kill the President, because he was obsessed with actress Jodi Foster and he thought she hated him so much then she wanted the President dead. If that's not an insane reason to kill someone... I would like to know what is. 

And the prosecution argued that Hinckley knew what he was doing at the time. He's an intelligent, educated man, he knew where the President would be, was able to get a gun and fired at him. And I''m sure that is right. But I don't see how you can argue that Hinckley was in the right frame of mind when he did this assassination attempt.

2. Ronald Reagan forgave John Hinckley even when he was in the hospital trying to recover from the assassination attempt. Whatever you think of Ronald Reagan, the man was a Christian and he just didn't pretend to be one for political reasons. Unlike certain other politicians today. But President Reagan's son, Ron JR. not only didn't forgive Hinckley, but thinks Hinckley should never be released and should still be locked up an institutionalized today. The President's wife, Nancy, never forgave Hinckley either. 

Ron Jr. is sort of talked about as some left-wing, hippie, or something, who is always antiestablishment, and talking about compassion and forgiveness , etc... the opposite of his father. But its Ron JR. the son, not Ron SR., the father, who thinks Mr. Hinckley should never be released to society as a free man. 

3. And the affair that John Hinckley had while being institutionalized at St. Elizabeth's in the 1980s. The woman that he had an affair with, was Leslie DeVeau. She was there because she was found not guilty by reason of insanity, for murdering her daughter. St. Elizabeth's knew about this affair. They even had sex together while they were both there. But did nothing to stop them because they thought it was therapeutic.

One of the main differences between a prison and a secure forensic hospital, (which is essentially what St. Elizabeth's was) is that you don't get a life without the possibility for parole, if you are found not guilty by reason of insanity... even for murder. The judge might say you need to be at a secure forensic hospital for this amount of years before you can even be under review for release. But after that point, if the hospital and judge thinks you are ready to return to society as a free person, you'll be released. 

And John Hinckley's case is an attempted assassination anyway. So even if John Hinckley was found to be sane and guilty, he would've gotten a release date, or 30 to life, or something like that, by his original trial judge. John Hinckley was granted an unconditional release in 2022. He now has a job, is able to support himself, and has stayed out of trouble. So in this case, the system worked the way it's supposed to. 

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