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'The View' host Sunny Hostin reveals she was holdout juror who helped spare NYC cannibal Daniel Rakowitz from prison

From the Newshound archive · first published 23 September 2026.

Sunny Hostin, who stunned co-hosts by admitting she was once a holdout juror who helped spare cannibal killer Daniel Rakowitz from prison before she had attended law school.
Sunny Hostin, who stunned co-hosts by admitting she was once a holdout juror who helped spare cannibal killer Daniel Rakowitz from prison before she had attended law school.
Daniel Rakowitz — the "Butcher of Tompkins Square Park" — whose 1989 murder and cannibalism case resurfaced when a producer found a newspaper clipping proving Sunny Hostin's jury service.
Daniel Rakowitz — the "Butcher of Tompkins Square Park" — whose 1989 murder and cannibalism case resurfaced when a producer found a newspaper clipping proving Sunny Hostin's jury service.

Sunny Hostin stunned her co-hosts on 'The View' by revealing she was once a holdout juror in the case of Daniel Rakowitz — the "Butcher of Tompkins Square Park" — who killed and ate a 26-year-old Swiss dancer in 1989. The disclosure came as the panel discussed the Lindsay Clancy mistrial, where a lone juror blocked a murder conviction for the mother who strangled her three children. Hostin, 57, a former federal prosecutor, had been defending the right of a holdout juror to stand alone against the majority when she made the bombshell admission.

Hostin said she sided with Rakowitz's defence before she had even attended law school, arguing he was not criminally responsible.

Co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin asked, stunned: 'You got this guy off?' while Joy Behar confirmed: 'The guy who ate the victims?'

A producer reportedly found a newspaper clipping proving Hostin's participation in the Rakowitz trial, which she proudly produced on air.

MoreDaily MailSunny Hostin reveals she was holdout juror in famous NYC cannibal caseNY Post‘The View’ host Sunny Hostin claims she was holdout juror in who spared NYC cannibal killer prison in Butcher of Tompkins Square Park case
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