George Wallace's shooter to leave Maryland prison

By Daniel Trotta

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The man who shot and paralyzed Alabama Gov. George Wallace on the presidential campaign trail in 1972 is due to be let out of prison this year after serving 35 years of a 53-year term, a prison official said on Thursday.

Arthur Bremer, 57, has had his sentence reduced for good behavior and is schedule to be freed in December from the Maryland Correctional Institution-Hagerstown, said Rae Sheeley, a prison spokeswoman.

Wallace, a proponent of racial segregation who later disavowed those views, was a captivating and polarizing figure during turbulent times, but Bremer's diaries showed he was motivated to assassinate him to gain fame rather than because of politics.

Bremer's December release date could be moved forward based on monthly assessments of credit he receives for good behavior and work. He is currently assigned as a prison clerk, Sheeley said.

"My supervisor reported yesterday that he (Bremer) showed no visible physical or mental problems," Sheeley said.

Bremer had quit his job as a janitor in 1972, writing in his diary that he planned to assassinate either Wallace or President Richard Nixon to achieve notoriety.

Bremer was 21 on May 15, 1972, when he shot Wallace four times at close range as Wallace greeted supporters of his presidential campaign at a rally in Laurel, Maryland. Wallace was left paralyzed from the waist down and three other people were wounded.

Wallace gained national prominence in 1963 for his "stand in the schoolhouse door" when the governor defiantly tried to block the integration of Alabama schools, and for the television images of police using dogs and fire hoses to put down Alabama civil rights protesters.

After being shot, Wallace continued his political life and won a third and fourth term as Alabama governor in a wheelchair.

Wallace ran for president as a Democrat in 1964, 1972 and 1976, a symbol of the old Democratic South that opposed much of the civil rights movement for blacks. In 1968, the year Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, he ran as a third-party candidate, winning almost 10 million votes or 13.5 percent.

Later, as a born-again-Christian, he disavowed his segregationist views and was forgiven by many civil rights leaders. He died in 1998 aged 79.