By TMZ | Created at 2026-09-29 18:21:16 | Updated at 2026-09-29 19:27:45
1 hour ago
'The View' Host Sunny Hostin Doubles Down On Being Holdout Juror ... In Cannibal Murder Case
Published September 29, 2026 11:14 AM PDT
Sunny Hostin is doing some cleanup after internet sleuths dug up old newspaper clips that seemed to blow a hole in her story about being the holdout juror who helped acquit a cannibal in a famous NYC murder trial.
The 'View' cohost sat down with executive producer Brian Teta for the show's "Behind the Table" YouTube series to explain exactly what happened during the 1991 trial of Daniel Rakowitz -- the man charged with murder for killing, dismembering, and cannibalizing Monika Beerle.
Sunny claimed last week she had been the holdout juror who pushed the panel toward finding Rakowitz not criminally responsible by reason of insanity -- saying she slowly won over the other jurors after initially facing major resistance.
Sunny definitively said on "The View" last week she was the holdout juror in the case ... but old news reports resurfaced saying there were actually two holdouts. Sunny says both can be true -- because they were talking about different counts.
She says she was the lone juror who believed Rakowitz was insane when he killed Monika and therefore not criminally responsible for the murder.
But when it came to desecrating her remains, Sunny says everyone thought he was guilty except one other juror.
In other words, Sunny says the confusion comes down to which count people were talking about ... and admits the whole thing was probably too complicated to cram into a five-minute TV segment.
The wild timing here ... Sunny only brought up the decades-old case because of the Lindsay Clancy mistrial, where one holdout juror helped derail an 11-1 verdict on criminal responsibility.
As TMZ reported, the Clancy case is now taking a dramatic turn ... with her defense making a major pivot and arguing prosecutors can't even prove she killed her children.
