Sunny Hostin Says She Prevented Guilty Verdict in 1991 'Cannibal' Murder Trial Due to Psychosis Evidence

Sunny Hostin recounted her experience as a holdout juror in a 1991 “cannibal” murder trial, as she believed that the accused suffered from psychosis.

The subject came up during the September 22 episode of The View.

The panel was discussing the subject of Lindsay Clancy's mistrial after she admitted to killing her three children but pleaded not guilty, claiming that she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis at the time.

“The reason I felt so strongly about this holdout juror is that I was a holdout juror in the Daniel Rakowitz case,” Hostin revealed during the discussion.

“I don’t know if people remember it - the Butcher of Tompkins Square Park,” she added.

Hostin stunned her co-hosts with her admission, which prompted Joy Behar to clarify, “The guy who ate the victims?”

The case Hostin was referring to resulted in an infamous trial in 1991.

Rakowitz, the accused, killed a woman named Monika Beerle in 1989.

Per Radar Online, reports suggested that he had punched the woman in the neck, which caused her to suffocate and die shortly afterwards.

However, once the victim passed away from the blow, Rakowitz apparently dismembered her corpse and cooked her into a soup.

He then allegedly tasted the soup himself before serving it to homeless people who were living at Tompkins Square Park back then.

In the aforementioned trial in 1991, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Alyssa Farah Griffin exclaimed after she recounted the case, “You were on that jury?!”

“And you got this guy off?!” Griffin further asked.

Hostin recalled that the other jury members were severely displeased with her at the time.

“Several jurors afterwards said, ‘One holdout juror was principally responsible for preventing them from returning a guilty verdict.’ That was me,” she said.

“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,” she clarified.

Per the outlet, Rakowitz also had a history of psychosis beforehand, which might have made The View co-host more prone to come to that conclusion.

“That’s how much I believe in the insanity defense,” she admitted.

She elaborated that it was “so clear to me in the jury room” that the killer had been suffering from psychosis at the time.

“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?’” Hostin remarked.

“And we ended up, all 12, unanimously voting that he was not criminally responsible by reason of insanity,” she added.

Rakowitz is currently staying 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 commented.