Sunny Hostin Admits She Was a Lone Holdout Juror in 1991 'Cannibal' Murder Trial — And Leaves 'The View' Co-Hosts Stunned
Sunny Hostin revealed she was once a holdout juror.
Sept. 23 2026, Updated 4:09 p.m. ET
Sunny Hostin made a shocking confession about her own history as a holdout juror in a gruesome early '90s murder trial, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The panel got on the topic during the Tuesday, September 22, installment of The View, while discussing the mistrial of Lindsay Clancy, who confessed to killing her three children. Her legal team claimed she was not criminally liable due to postpartum mental illness.
Sunny Hostin Reveals She Was a 'Holdout Juror'
Sunny Hostin claimed she was on the jury during the trial of Daniel Rakowitz.
The case was declared a mistrial after the jury failed to reach a unanimous decision after days of deliberation, as one man on the jury refused to change his vote.
"The reason I felt so strongly about this holdout juror is that I was a holdout juror in the Daniel Rakowitz case," Hostin shared. "I don’t know if people remember it, the Butcher of Tompkins Square Park."
Her confession seemingly left the panel stunned.
Joy Behar cut in, "The guy who ate the victims?" and Alyssa Farah Griffin exclaimed, "You were on that jury?!"
Sunny Hostin Says She 'Saw Clearly' Daniel Rakowitz Was 'Psychotic'
Sunny Hostin believed Daniel Rakowitz had been suffering from psychosis.
Hostin explained that it happened before she went to law school.
"Several jurors afterwards said, ‘One holdout juror was principally responsible for preventing them from returning a guilty verdict.’ That was me," she continued. "And it was because I saw clearly that he was psychotic; he was in psychosis. He did not mean to kill her, and once he killed her, he panicked."
'That's How Much I Believe in the Insanity Defense'
Sunny Hostin said she has a firm belief in the 'insanity defense.'
Rakowitz, who had a documented history of suffering from psychosis, killed a woman named Monika Beerle in 1989. It was reported at the time that he'd punched her in the neck and she suffocated from the blow.
Following her death, he dismembered her body, cooked it into a soup, which he allegedly tasted himself, and then served it to unhoused people in Tompkins Square Park. In 1991, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
After Hostin detailed his case to her fellow co-hosts, Griffin asked, "And you got this guy off?!"
"That’s how much I believe in the insanity defense," she replied.
Sunny Hostin Claims Other Jurors Were 'Angry' With Her
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Sunny Hostin said one juror 'threw a chair' at her during the trial.
Hostin pointed out that it was "so clear to me in the jury room" where they'd been for nine days that he'd been suffering from psychosis.
"One juror threw a chair at me, they were so angry with me, but one by one, I picked them off and said, ‘What about this? What about that?’" she shared. "And we ended up, all 12, unanimously voting that he was not criminally responsible by reason of insanity."
However, Rakowitz did not walk free. He is institutionalized at the Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center on Ward's Island in New York City.
"That’s a different type of prison, and he’s being treated because he’s sick," she added.
