From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Francisco Martin Duran (born September 8, 1968,
in Albuquerque, New Mexico) is most known
for his actions of October 29, 1994, when he fired 29 rounds from
an SKS rifle at the White House. He was
later convicted of attempting to assassinate United States President Bill Clinton and
sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Events of the
Day
On Saturday October 29, 1994, dressed in a trench coat, Duran
went up to the fence overlooking the north lawn of the White House
and fired an SKS semi-automatic rifle[1] at a
group of men in dark business suits on the White House lawn. Two
nearby boys claimed they had remarked aloud just before the
shooting that one of the men looked like Clinton. Secret Service agents
immediately began running across the lawn, guns drawn, when
citizens Harry Rakowsky, Ken Davis, and Robert Haines tackled Duran
and pinned his arms until he could be subdued. Clinton was
reportedly in the family residence watching a football game at the
time of the shooting and was unharmed. The incident followed just
six weeks after Frank Eugene Corder crashed a Cessna into the White House south
lawn and prompted debate about closing off traffic on that area of
Pennsylvania Avenue. No one was
harmed in the assassination attempt.
Trial
The most important charges in the two-week trial were attempted
murder of the President and four counts of assaulting a federal
officer (the Secret Service agents). Duran had served prison time
previously, convicted of aggravated assault with a vehicle in the
U.S.
Army, and therefore, beyond the attempted murder of the
President he was also charged with illegal possession of a firearm
by a convicted felon. The other charges were use of an assault
weapon during a crime of violence, destruction of U.S. property,
and interstate transportation of a firearm with intent to commit a
felony.
Duran pleaded not guilty and mounted an insanity
defense, claiming that he was trying to save the world by
destroying an alien "mist", connected by an umbilical cord to
an alien in the Colorado
mountains.[2] He also
claimed to be incited by ultraconservative talk show host Chuck Baker, who spoke on air
about "armed revolution" and "cleansing" of the government.[3]
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