Sunny Hostin, the “The View” co-host and former federal prosecutor, has revealed that she was the holdout juror in the 1991 trial of Daniel Rakowitz, the New York man accused of killing and dismembering his roommate. Hostin said she opposed a guilty verdict because she believed Rakowitz was experiencing psychosis at the time of the killing.
Hostin made the revelation during a discussion on “The View” about the Lindsay Clancy murder case, which ended earlier this month in a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict. NBC News reported that Hostin connected her own experience as a holdout juror to the debate over the insanity defense in the Clancy case.
Who is Sunny Hostin?
Sunny Hostin has been a co-host of ABC’s “The View” since 2016. According to her official ABC biography, she previously worked as a CNN host and legal analyst and as a fill-in anchor for ABC News.
Hostin is also a lawyer. She graduated from Notre Dame Law School and began her legal career as an appellate law clerk before becoming a trial attorney and federal prosecutor with the US Department of Justice. ABC says she received a Special Achievement Award from then-Attorney General Janet Reno for her work prosecuting child sexual predators.
{{/usCountry}}Hostin is also a lawyer. She graduated from Notre Dame Law School and began her legal career as an appellate law clerk before becoming a trial attorney and federal prosecutor with the US Department of Justice. ABC says she received a Special Achievement Award from then-Attorney General Janet Reno for her work prosecuting child sexual predators.
{{/usCountry}}Her television work has included coverage of major criminal cases. She also hosted and executive produced the true-crime documentary series “Truth About Murder with Sunny Hostin” for Investigation Discovery.
What did Sunny Hostin say about being a holdout juror?
Hostin said she served on the jury in the Daniel Rakowitz case before attending law school.
Rakowitz was accused of killing Monika Beerle, a 26-year-old dance student, in New York in 1989. He was accused of dismembering her body, boiling some of the remains and feeding them to people in Tompkins Square Park.
Rakowitz was ultimately found not guilty by reason of insanity at his 1991 trial. NBC News reported that Hostin said she was the juror who initially prevented the panel from returning a guilty verdict.
Also read: Sponsoring an immigrant to the US? What Indians need to know about new Affidavit of Support form
Hostin said she believed Rakowitz was psychotic at the time of the killing. She recalled that the jury deliberated for nine days and that discussions became heated.
“One juror threw a chair at me,” Hostin said on “The View,” according to NBC News. She said she continued questioning the other jurors about the evidence and eventually the entire 12-member panel agreed that Rakowitz was not criminally responsible by reason of insanity.
Hostin also said her producer found an old New York Times report after she mentioned the case on the show. According to Hostin, the article described one holdout juror as being principally responsible for preventing the panel from returning a guilty verdict.
“That was me,” Hostin said.
What happened to Daniel Rakowitz?
Rakowitz was ordered in 2010 to remain at the maximum-security Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on Wards Island, according to NBC News' report on Hostin's revelation.
Hostin said Rakowitz remains in a mental institution and described it as “a different type of prison.”
Her disclosure surprised her fellow “The View” co-hosts, with Alyssa Farah Griffin questioning how Hostin had reached her conclusion in the case.
Why did Hostin's old jury experience come up now?
Hostin's revelation came during a discussion about Lindsay Clancy, whose Massachusetts murder trial ended in a mistrial earlier this month.
Clancy's defense argued that she was not criminally responsible for killing her three children because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis. The jury ultimately deadlocked 11-1.
Michael P. Desronvil, the lone juror who did not agree with acquitting Clancy, later said he believed the prosecution had presented enough evidence to show that she knew what she was doing and had planned the killings, according to NBC News.
Hostin said her own experience as a holdout juror helped explain why she felt strongly about the role of a juror who disagrees with the rest of a panel in an insanity-defense case.
Her account of the Rakowitz trial is based on her recollection more than three decades after the proceedings and the historical newspaper report she referenced during the broadcast.