Sunny Hostin's claim that she swayed the jury in the Daniel Rakowitz case

Sep 25, 2026

A daytime TV host's boast about being the holdout juror who blocked a murder conviction in a notorious 1991 cannibalism case has drawn a backlash, and contemporary news reports don't fully back her story up.

  • Sunny Hostin said on The View that she was the lone holdout who talked 11 other jurors into finding Daniel Rakowitz — who killed his girlfriend, dismembered her and fed remains to homeless people in Tompkins Square Park — not criminally responsible by reason of insanity.
  • She was on the jury under her legal name at the time, but 1991 wire and newspaper reports described the main holdout as an unemployed man who liked collecting the daily juror pay, and another account said there were two holdouts.
  • Critics called it tasteless to retell the story lightly on a talk show, with the victim's family in mind, and questioned the cost to taxpayers of keeping Rakowitz in a mental institution decades later.
  • The segment was tied to wider criticism of Hostin, including her past CNN essay about leaving her toddler in a car while defending a father whose child died the same way.
  • The broader complaint: the insanity defense is being defended on entertainment TV as a talking point rather than argued on the facts.

Outlook: Expect more pressure on The View over how it handles violent crime cases, with little chance the 1991 verdict itself is revisited.

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