Month: June 2022

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered that John Hinckley Jr. — the attempted assassin of former President Ronald Reagan in 1981 — will be released from psychiatric supervision later this month. Hinckley completed a nine-month observation period ordered in September, and at that time U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said the 67-year-old Hinckley would be free of all remaining restrictions if he maintains mental stability.

Hinckley spent more than three decades in a mental hospital as part of his insanity defense for shooting Reagan and three others outside the Washington, D.C., Hilton Hotel on March 30, 1981. Hinckley had acute psychosis at the time of the shooting and said he carried out the attack to impress actor Jodie Foster.

A judge granted his release in 2016 with a number of restrictions, including living with his mother in Virginia, to ensure Hinckley wouldn’t veer into violence again.  Hinckley’s defense team, prosecutors and mental health experts all agreed that they had no concerns about his mental state. Judge Friedman said:  “John Hinckley tried to kill the president of the United States. He came very close to doing so. Without losing sight of what he did 40 years ago, he has been the most scrutinized person … living under a microscope as none of us have. I am confident Mr. Hinckley will do well in the years remaining to him.”

Editorial credit: mark reinstein / Shutterstock.com

On Wednesday, a Fairfax County, Va., jury reached its verdict in the ‘Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard’ defamation trial, ruling unanimously in favor of Depp.  After six weeks of testimony and deliberating for nearly 13 hours, the jury found that Heard intentionally and maliciously defamed Depp when she wrote her 2018 op-ed in the Washington Post about her experiences as a domestic abuse survivor. Heard filed her own $100 million countersuit, claiming Depp and his legal team defamed her by calling her allegations a hoax.

The jury unanimously found “clear and convincing evidence” that Heard defamed Depp when she wrote the op-ed, and acted with actual malice, and awarded $10 million in damages to Depp in terms of compensatory damages, relating to jobs and opportunities lost, and $5 million in punitive damages. There were three statements at issue in Heard’s counterclaim, and the jury found one statement defamatory, awarding Heard $2 million in damages.

Depp was not present in the courtroom to hear the verdict saying ‘previously scheduled work commitments had him watching from the United Kingdom.”   Depp released the following statement after the verdict, saying in part: “Six years ago, my life, the life of my children, the lives of those closest to me, and also, the lives of the people who for many, many years have supported and believed in me were forever changed….And six years later, the jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled.”

Heard released a statement as well, saying in part: “The disappointment I feel today is beyond words. I’m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband. I’m even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated.”

Editorial credit: Matteo Chinellato / Shutterstock.com