Sunny Hostin Reveals Past Holdout Juror Role
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What happened
On a Tuesday episode of ABC's "The View," co-host Sunny Hostin said she had been a holdout juror in the 1991 New York trial of Daniel Rakowitz, who was accused of killing and dismembering 26-year-old dance student Monika Beerle in Manhattan's East Village in 1989, then boiling her remains and feeding them to people in Tompkins Square Park. Rakowitz was found not guilty by reason of insanity. Hostin, then a paralegal named Asunción Cummings, spoke during a discussion of the Lindsay Clancy case, which ended earlier this month in a Massachusetts mistrial after jurors split 11-1 on whether Clancy was not criminally responsible by reason of insanity for killing her three children; Hostin cited a 1991 New York Times article stating that one holdout juror was "principally responsible for preventing them from returning a guilty verdict" and said, "That was me." Contemporaneous 1991 coverage in Newsday and other outlets quoted fellow jurors describing an unemployed man who "liked the $15 a day and the three free meals" as a holdout, quoted Hostin as saying "We had to compromise" and that Rakowitz "literally got away with murder," and in one report said two jurors had insisted he was mentally ill; a law-enforcement source later told the New York Post that "the juror who held out was a man." Hostin told the Post, "I was. I was the holdout juror."
Sourcing check · Fully on the record · 3 articles
3 of 3 articles cite a named source for the story. It was on the record from the first report. Valerie Holmes denied part of it on the record.
What these terms mean and how they're counted
- On the record · names a source 3 of 3
- On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: Sunny Hostin and New York Times
- Primary evidence · cites a document or data 1 of 3
- Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: newspaper clipping
- Credits another outlet 0 of 3
- The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: Each article presents its own reporting.
- Unnamed sources 1 of 3
- The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
- On-record denial 2
- A named person or institution says the claim, or part of it, is not true. It is on the record — someone signed their name to it — but it is not confirmation, so it never counts toward On the record. Criticizing or dissenting from a decision is not a denial. The count is how many people or institutions deny it; each is listed with the first article that carried the denial. Here: Valerie Holmes (Fox News, Sep 25, 14:22 UTC); law enforcement source (Fox News, Sep 25, 14:22 UTC)
- How it developed
- When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Sep 23, 16:22 UTC by Breitbart, naming its source. First document 7 hours later, from NBC News (newspaper clipping).
- Not counted 0
- Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
Left-leaning coverage treats Hostin's claim that she was the holdout as settled, omitting trial-era reporting that named a different juror and quoted her in conflicting terms. NBC News repeats her identification of herself as the person who blocked a guilty verdict and never mentions interviews from the time that identified an unemployed man as the holdout. Fox News reports that Hostin, then using another surname, told reporters the panel had to compromise because the defendant "literally got away with murder."
Right-leaning coverage at Fox News opens on the mismatch between Hostin's on-air story and the trial-era record. Left-leaning coverage at NBC News opens on the reveal and her account of recognizing psychosis rather than on whether her memory matches those interviews.
How does Hostin square that post-verdict interview with her present story of converting the room?
Bottom line
The story NBC News told is that Hostin flipped a murder jury; the file Fox News added is that she once called the same outcome a compromise.
The receipts — 4 facts one side's coverage lacks
- After the verdict, Hostin (then identified as Asunción Cummings) told Newsday the jury had to compromise and that Rakowitz literally got away with murder.
- Jurors told Newsday, the Daily News, the Associated Press, and the Post that the principal holdout was an unemployed man.
- A Newsday account said 10 jurors wanted to convict of murder and two insisted Rakowitz was mentally ill.
- Rakowitz was ordered in 2010 to remain at maximum-security Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center.
The Left View
NBC News presented Hostin's identification of herself as the Times's unnamed holdout as a firsthand account of why she defends holdouts in insanity cases, quoting her that she "saw clearly that he was psychotic," that "he did not mean to kill her, and once he killed her, he panicked," and that after combative deliberations — "one juror threw a chair at me" — she "picked them off" until all 12 voted he was not criminally responsible. The coverage noted she called his continued confinement in a psychiatric center "a different type of prison" and applied the same view to Clancy, saying Massachusetts' insanity defense is "well-established" and she "thought absolutely that she was not criminally responsible by reason of insanity." Co-hosts were described as stunned, with Alyssa Farah Griffin asking, "And you got this guy off?"
The Right View
Breitbart framed the remarks as Hostin taking credit for helping a man "get off for murder & butchering" a woman, stressing co-hosts' shock and quoting Rep. Nancy Mace as "speechless" and Spencer Pratt as saying Hostin was "nullifying verdicts for cannibals." Fox News reported that her holdout claim is "complicated by conflicting reports," citing juror Valerie Holmes's 1991 statement that the holdout "was unemployed and liked the $15 a day and the three free meals," Hostin's own contemporaneous line that he "literally got away with murder," a source who said the holdout "was a man," and a Newsday account of two holdouts — while noting she still told the Post she was the holdout.
Our Take (balanced)
Left-leaning coverage's strongest argument is documentary placement: Hostin was on the jury, the Times blamed one holdout for blocking a guilty verdict, and she now says that was her, describing a campaign on psychosis that produced the unanimous insanity finding the court recorded. Right-leaning coverage's strongest argument is the 1991 paper trail: multiple jurors named an unemployed man as the holdout, some coverage described two holdouts, and Hostin's own Newsday quote treated the verdict as a compromise in which the defendant "literally got away with murder," language that sits uneasily with her present account of having been the driving holdout. The central unresolved tension is whether her 2025 self-identification as the principal holdout can be reconciled with what she and fellow jurors told reporters in 1991.
3 sources
- Sunny Hostin reveals she was holdout juror in 1991 ‘Butcher of Tompkins Square Park’ trial
- ‘The View’ Co-Host Sunny Hostin Reveals She Was Holdout Juror Who Helped Man Get Off for Murder & Butchering Woman
- Sunny Hostin's holdout juror claim complicated by conflicting reports from infamous 1991 murder trial
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