John Hinckley Jr. trial (1982)
Hinckley shot President Ronald Reagan and three others outside a Washington hotel in March 1981. At his 1982 trial, psychiatrists disagreed about his mental state, and the jury found him not guilty by reason of insanity.
Hinckley was confined to St. Elizabeths psychiatric hospital, where he remained for decades.
The verdict prompted Congress and several states to tighten insanity defense standards, making such defenses harder to win.
Eaton's defense rested on the same legal doctrine. The Burlington jury rejected it in about two hours, a reminder of how rarely insanity defenses succeed.
