George Wallace's shooter to be released after 35 years

BALTIMORE - Arthur Bremer was a 21-year-old former janitor and busboy when he shot Alabama Gov. George Wallace five times during a presidential campaign stop in 1972 in Maryland.

Now 57, Bremer is preparing for life outside prison. He is scheduled to be released in mid-December and could get out even sooner.

Bremer has never publicly expressed remorse for the shooting. He has not granted a single interview during his 35 years behind bars. He has never gotten into trouble, either.

"He was a model inmate," said Ruth Ogle, a program manager for the Maryland Parole Commission.

Bremer has shaved nearly two decades off his 53-year sentence with good behavior and by working jobs in prison. He currently works as a clerk at the medium-security Maryland Correctional Institute-Hagerstown.

His release is scheduled for Dec. 16, but that's likely to change as he continues to accumulate credits for work and good behavior, said Rae Sheeley, a case-management specialist at the prison.

Wallace was seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge President Richard Nixon when he was wounded May 15, 1972, outside a shopping center in Laurel. Three bystanders were shot but were not seriously hurt. The attack left the former segregationist with paralyzed legs and forced him to abandon his populist bid for the presidency. Despite declining health, he was elected to two more terms as Alabama's governor. He died in 1998.

Bremer's diary indicated that he had stalked Nixon before turning his sights on Wallace and that he was seeking notoriety when he planned to assassinate a political leader.

His silence since his conviction diminished his infamy. "I shy away from publicity," he said at his parole hearing.

Wallace's son, former state treasurer George Wallace Jr., told the Press-Register of Mobile, Ala.: "I've forgiven Arthur Bremer, and my family has, so I think God's law has been adhered to.

"But having said that, I don't believe that given the suffering my father endured all those years from the gunshots and the constant paralysis, I don't think Arthur Bremer's incarceration comes close to that type of suffering."