Judge frees man who tried to kill U.S. President Reagan

John Hinckley Jr. departs from the E. Barrett Prettyman U.S. District Court building in Washington, November 18, 2003. REUTERS/Brendan Smialowski

(Reuters) - John Hinckley Jr., who wounded U.S. President Ronald Reagan and three other people in a 1981 assassination attempt prompted by a deranged obsession with actress Jodie Foster, can be freed from a psychiatric hospital to live with his mother, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said Hinckley, 61, who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in a 1982 trial, no longer posed a danger to himself or others.