The news that the death of James Brady was ultimately caused by the 1981 shooting that left him permanently paralyzed reminds us that murder has no statute of limitations.
According to reports on Friday, a medical examiner in Northern Virginia has determined that gunfire that hit the former White House press secretary during an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan led to Brady’s death.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Washington told Bloomberg that prosecutors are reviewing the coroner’s ruling, which could lead to homicide charges against Brady’s assailant, John Hinckley, Jr., 33 years after the shooting that also injured the president, a police officer and a Secret Service agent.
Under most modern statutes, to be guilty of murder a defendant must cause another person’s death, which can occur at any time. That differs from the common law, which held that death had to occur within a year-and-a-day of the homicidal act.
Hinckley, now 59, was found not guilty by reason of insanity of charges tied to the shooting, including attempted assassination of the president and assault on a federal officer.
“There is probably a basis to charge him,” Thomas Zeno, a former federal prosecutor, told Bloomberg. Zeno spent nearly 20 years opposing Hinckley’s attempts to win more privileges at Saint Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, where he has been held since the jury verdict.
Hinckley’s lawyer, Barry Wm. Levine, rejected the idea that prosecutor’s could charge his client. “It’s not very complicated,” said Levine. “The act was prosecuted and he was found not guilty by reason of insanity. The only difference between what was charged then and this conclusion is that Mr. Brady died.”