Alan Randall may have been better off going to prison for killing two police officers in 1975. He might have been freed in his early 30s, with most of his life still ahead of him.

Instead, Randall likely will be discharged from a Madison hospital by the end of the month as a 55-year-old who has spent his entire adult life in psychiatric institutions for a mental illness he never had. A judge signed an agreement Friday that Randall will be released by the end of the month.

At age 16, Randall ambushed two officers—Summit Township Officers Robert "Rocky" Atkins and Wayne Olson—outside the tiny police station in his rural Summit home in Waukesha County. He had robbed the station, and later told investigators that the officers' arrival had startled him. Randall gunned down the two men, then drove off in their bloody, bullet-ridden squad car to commit another burglary before going home to bed.

Read the full Associated Press story.