With The View discussing how the attorney for killer Lindsey Clancy was looking to investigate the holdout juror in the trial, ABC News co-host Sunny Hostin shared a new story with her cast mates. On Tuesday’s episode of The View, Hostin recounted how she was the holdout juror in a major New York City murder trial in the early 1990s, The Butcher of Tompkins Square Park, who killed, butchered, cooked, and served his landlady to the homeless. Hostin wanted him found “not guilty.”
The reason Hostin brought up her involvement with the case was to show off how much she believed in the insanity defense. When she mentioned the case, Behar immediately remembered it:
HOSTIN: The insanity defense has been around in Massachusetts for 182 years, so I think it’s well established. And I thought absolutely she was not criminally responsible by reason of insanity. And the reason I felt that -- I feel so strongly about this holdout juror is became I was a holdout juror in a case in the Daniel Rakowitz case. I don’t know if people remember it, The Butcher of Thompkins Square Park. It was in 199-
JOY BEHAR: The guy who ate the victims?
HOSTIN: Yes.
Sunny Hostin brags about being a holdout juror that prevented The Butcher of Thompson Square Park from going to prison.
She admits "once he killed her, he chopped up her body parts, yes, boiled her body parts ... and fed her body parts to the unhoused." pic.twitter.com/sLbElgLuGt— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) September 22, 2026
Hostin bragged about her status as the lone holdout juror, even being featured in The New York Times:
When I brought it up at the Hot Topics meeting, I don't think everyone believed me. And my producer looked it up and I'm in The New York Times and apparently, “several jurors questioned afterwards said one holdout juror was principally responsible for preventing them from returning a guilty verdict.” That was me.
Finally getting around to the gruesome details of the killing, Hostin argued: “he did not mean to kill her, and once he killed her he panicked.” “He chopped up her body parts, yes, boiled her body parts, tried to commit the perfect crime and then … he fed her body parts to the unhoused [homeless],” she recalled.
“And you got this guy off?!” shouted co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin and a seeming mixture of shock and disgust. “That's how much I believe in the insanity defense,” Hostin proclaimed.
While claiming, “one juror threw a chair at me,” Hostin touted how she was able to turn them all. “They were so angry with me and one-by-one I picked them off and said ‘what about this, what about that’ and we ended up, all 12 unanimously voting that he was not criminally responsible by reason [of insanity].”
Adding: “But he is still in a mental institution being treated.”
Hostin did save some of her typical scorn for Clancy’s attorney over his effort to target the holdout juror in her case:
I think this lawyer, you know, who is -- wants the juror investigated, that's going to have a chilling effect on juries. Jury duty is duty. It is one of the most important things I think I've ever done in my life. It was extremely difficult. But to investigate a juror for doing his or her duty is despicable.
Additionally, Hostin accidently blew up the narrative she had created about her life on the show. Often bragging about how she supposedly grew up in the Bronx, Tompkins Square Park was located in Manhattan’s Stuyvesant neighborhood near the East Village. New York City will only summon a potential juror in the borough they live in. Since Hostin was summoned to be on a jury in Manhattan, she couldn’t be living in the Bronx.
While Hostin’s family did live in the Bronx for a short amount of time, she grew up in Stuyvesant, particularly StuyTown, a wealthy private community just four blocks from Tompkins Square Park.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
September 22, 2026
11:15:29 a.m. Eastern(…)
SUNNY HOSTIN: The insanity defense has been around in Massachusetts for 182 years, so I think it’s well established. And I thought absolutely she was not criminally responsible by reason of insanity. And the reason I felt that -- I feel so strongly about this holdout juror is became I was a holdout juror in a case in the Daniel Rakowitz case. I don’t know if people remember it, The Butcher of Thompkins Square Park. It was in 199-
JOY BEHAR: The guy who ate the victims?
HOSTIN: Yes.
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: [Gasps] You were on the jury?!
HOSTIN: Yes, I was.
SARA HAINES: You’re going to need to explain more!
[Crosstalk]
FARAH GRIFFIN: How have we never heard this story before?
STAR JONES: Were you a lawyer already?!
HOSTIN: It was before I went to law school -
JONES: Oh, cause I would have never put you on -
HOSTIN: and when I brought it up in --
[Laughter]
When I brought it up at the Hot Topics meeting, I don't think everyone believed me. And my producer looked it up and I'm in The New York Times and apparently, “several jurors questioned afterwards said one holdout juror was principally responsible -
BEHAR: Asuncion!
HOSTIN: -for preventing them from returning a guilty verdict.” That was me. And it was because I saw clearly that he was psychotic.
BEHAR: Of course.
HOSTIN: He was in a psycokis - psychosis, he did not mean to kill her, and once he killed her he panicked. He chopped up her body parts, yes, boiled her body parts, tried to commit the perfect crime and then --
FARAH GRIFFIN: And you got this guy off?!
HOSTIN: No, no, no. But he fed -- that's how much I believe in the insanity defense. And he fed her body parts to the unhoused.
JONES: Excuse me, can I move over? I don’t need to be here.
HOSTIN: But all that being said, it was so clear to me in the jury room - And we were sequestered for nine day, one juror threw a chair at me. They were so angry with me and one-by-one I picked them off and said ‘what about this, what about that’ and we ended up, all 12 unanimously voting that he was not criminally responsible by reason -
[Crosstalk]
FARAH GRIFFIN: That's my issue with the law.
HOSTIN: By reason of insanity. But he is still in a mental institution being treated.
(…)
11:18:00 a.m. Eastern
HOSTIN: The insanity defense is a real thing and I think this lawyer, you know, who is -- wants the juror investigated, that's going to have a chilling effect on juries.
FARAH GRIFFIN: That’s very important.
HOSTIN: Jury duty is duty. It is one of the most important things I think I've ever done in my life. It was extremely difficult. But to investigate a juror for doing his or her duty is despicable.
(…)
