DURAN CONVICTED OF TRYING TO KILL PRESIDENT CLINTON
By Toni Locy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 5, 1995
; Page D01
After deliberating nearly five hours, a federal jury convicted a Colorado
man yesterday of trying to assassinate President Clinton, rejecting his claim
that he was insane when he opened fire on the White House in October.
The jury, which began deliberations yesterday morning, also convicted
Francisco Martin Duran, 26, of assaulting four Secret Service officers,
illegally possessing firearms, using those weapons during a crime of violence
and causing $3,400 in damage to the White House.
Because of the seriousness of Duran's armed assault on the White House,
U.S. Attorney Eric H. Holder Jr. said, prosecutors may ask U.S. District Judge
Charles R. Richey to go beyond federal sentencing guidelines -- which call for
a term of 25 to 30 years on the charges -- and impose the maximum sentence of
life in prison when Duran is sentenced June 29.
"One of the things I hope comes out of this will be a very strong deterrent
effect," Holder said. "We take all crimes seriously, but especially those
directed against the leaders of this country."
Holder called the case an example of cooperation not only among law
enforcement agencies but also with ordinary citizens. He lauded "the
courageous acts" of tourists who tackled Duran on Oct. 29 as he tried to
reload a semiautomatic rifle on Pennsylvania Avenue NW and of others who
captured the incident on videotape and testified as government witnesses.
The jury's rejection of Duran's insanity defense also was important, Holder
said. "Very often in society, people try to use excuses to deflect
responsibility," he said. "This jury has sent a message to people like this
that bogus excuses will not be tolerated."
Holder repeated his concern that several people had heard Duran make
threats against the president but did not report them to police. "It's much
better to investigate a number . . . of crackpot allegations . . . in the hope
that you will get that one person who is like Mr. Duran," Holder said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric A. Dubelier, who prosecuted the case with
Brenda J. Johnson, told reporters after the verdict that Duran's insanity
defense was "preposterous" and "nonsense."
The two-week trial was a battle of specialists who gave far different
opinions on Duran's mental state.
Mental health specialists for the defense insisted that Duran, a hotel
upholsterer from suburban Colorado Springs, is a paranoid schizophrenic who
had no intention of shooting at the president.
Defense psychiatrists and psychologists said Duran was trying to destroy a
"mist" that was connected by an umbilical cord to an alien being he
encountered in the Colorado mountains. Duran, they said, believed it was his
duty to destroy the mist, which was controlling the White House, to save the
government and the world.
Public defenders A.J. Kramer and Leigh A. Kenny, who would not comment on
the verdict, argued that Duran never meant to hurt anyone. They argued that he
did not hear two Indiana school boys say they thought they saw someone on the
White House lawn who looked like Clinton.
But doctors hired by prosecutors said that Duran was faking mental illness
and that he was antisocial and narcissistic. Johnson said in her closing
argument that Duran simply wanted to be famous. He told his wife and friends
to cash in on his fame by appearing on tabloid television shows and by selling
business cards on which he had written violent, threatening messages.
The prosecution called more than 60 witnesses to show that Duran had talked
often of anarchy and that he hated government in general and Clinton in
particular.
According to testimony, Duran bought an SKS semiautomatic rifle in Colorado
on Sept. 13. That was the day Clinton signed into law the most recent crime
bill, which bans the sale of military-style weapons such as the SKS.
Duran left Colorado on Sept. 30. When he arrived in the Washington area on
Oct. 10, he moved from hotel to hotel, staying for a few days at the
Washington Hilton, the site of John W. Hinckley Jr.'s attempt to assassinate
President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington
Post and may not include subsequent corrections.
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