HAGERSTOWN, Md. – The man who shot and paralyzed Alabama Gov. George Wallace during a 1972 presidential campaign stop in Maryland was released Friday from a state prison after serving 35 years of his sentence.
Arthur H. Bremer, 57, left the prison before sunrise, said Mark A. Vernarelli, a state prison system spokesman.
Wallace, a fiery segregationist during the 1960s, was wounded on May 15, 1972, during a campaign stop in Laurel, Md. He abandoned his bid for the Democratic nomination, spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair and died in 1998.
Bremer, a former Milwaukee busboy and janitor, was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 53 years. He has been held at the medium-security Maryland Correctional Institution near Hagerstown, about 70 miles from Baltimore, since 1979.
He earned his mandatory release through good behavior and by working in prison. Bremer will remain under the supervision of the Division of Parole and Probation until his sentence ends in 2025.
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