Wallace shooter set to leave jail

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The gunman who tried to kill Alabama Governor George Wallace on the US presidential campaign trail in 1972 is due to be freed from prison this year.

Arthur Bremer, 57, was sentenced to 53 years for injuring Mr Wallace and three others in Laurel, Maryland.

He has served 35 years of his term and is being released for good behaviour.

Mr Wallace, paralysed in the attack, gained national prominence in the 1960s vowing "segregation forever", but he later apologised for his racist views.

Bremer was 21 when he shot Mr Wallace at close range as he greeted supporters at a rally in Laurel during campaigning for the Democratic nomination.

A bullet lodged in Mr Wallace's spine, leaving him confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Target Nixon

For many Americans, George Wallace was the personification of southern bigotry but he later underwent a complete political transformation.

George Wallace wrote to Bremer in 1995 saying he forgave him

He disavowed his views on racial segregation and won overwhelming support from Alabama's black population.

When Mr Wallace died of a heart attack in September 1998, aged 79, black civil rights leader, Jesse Jackson, was among the many black Americans who paid tribute to him.

Prison officials said Bremer was being released early under a programme that reduces the term of inmates who have a prison job and maintain good behaviour.

Bremer said he had hoped to become famous by assassinating President Richard Nixon but he settled for trying to kill Mr Wallace. He has never publicly expressed remorse for the shooting.