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Letter to the editor

Man who shot Wallace getting out of prison

He has spent 35 years in prison for shooting the man he called a "segregationist dinosaur."

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published August 24, 2007

BALTIMORE - The man who shot Alabama Gov. George Wallace during a 1972 presidential campaign stop, leaving him paralyzed, will be released from prison this year, an official said Thursday.

Arthur Bremer, 57, is scheduled for release Dec. 16, but likely will be out earlier as he continues to accumulate credits for good behavior and for working as a prison clerk, said Rae Sheeley, a case management specialist at the Maryland Correctional Institute-Hagerstown.

Bremer was sentenced to 53 years in prison for shooting Wallace and three bystanders at the campaign stop in Laurel, Md., on May 15, 1972. He has served 35 years of that sentence.

A bullet lodged in Wallace's spine, paralyzing his legs and forcing him to abandon his presidential bid. Wallace was elected to two more terms as Alabama's governor before his death in 1998.

Bremer has kept a low profile behind bars. "I shy away from publicity," he said during a 1996 parole hearing.

He did not show any remorse at the hearing, calling Wallace a "segregationist dinosaur" and suggesting that people who tried to restrain him were responsible for the shots that wounded the bystanders.

Bremer's parole was denied, partly on the basis of a psychological screening that he initially refused.

Wallace's son, George Wallace Jr., said, "I've forgiven Arthur Bremer and my family has, so I think God's law has been adhered to, and we're comfortable with that."

[Last modified August 23, 2007, 23:19:48]