Sunny Hostin recently claimed on The View that she was a holdout juror in a decades-old case involving a man who killed his girlfriend, dismembered her body, and fed the remains to homeless people. The story has since been debunked by evidence from a 1991 New York Daily News report detailing the trial of Daniel Rakowitz, the defendant accused of murder.

According to the article, Rakowitz—a 30-year-old former mental health patient with paranoid schizophrenia—was found not guilty of intentional murder due to his mental illness after a jury deliberated for nine days. One juror reportedly held out for an “insanity” verdict while another claimed the holdout juror wanted to extend their $15-a-day compensation. Crucially, the report states that Asuncion Cummings (Hostin’s given name), who was quoted as saying: “Yes, we believe he did it. I believe he butchered the body and almost committed the perfect crime. He knew what he was doing,” was not the holdout juror. Instead, the holdout juror was described in the report as an “unemployed man” who allegedly sought additional pay for his services.

Hostin’s claim that she secured an insanity verdict for Rakowitz directly contradicts her own words in the original court document. The Daily News account reveals she explicitly supported a guilty finding, not the defense of mental illness that she purportedly championed. This discrepancy has drawn sharp scrutiny to Hostin’s recollection of events nearly 35 years ago.

The evidence confirms Hostin misidentified her role in the case—a claim she made with apparent pride during her View appearance. Her assertion about being a key figure in the verdict has been thoroughly undermined by contemporaneous court records.