Francisco Martin Duran

Francisco Martin Duran (; born September 8, 1968) is an American convicted criminal and attempted assassin who, on October 29, 1994, fired 29 rounds from a semi-automatic rifle at the White House in an attempt to kill United States President Bill Clinton. Duran was convicted of attempted assassination and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Early life Duran was born in Barelas, an inner-city neighborhood of Albuquerque, New Mexico. He had six half-siblings, all born to different fathers, all of whom moved in and out of his life. His mother was a cleaning lady who received food stamps and other government assistance. He was released after two and a half years in 1993. at a group of tourists wearing suits on the White House lawn, specifically a tourist whose haircut was said to resemble that of President Bill Clinton. Passersby wrestled Duran to the ground and subdued him until Secret Service agents arrived to take him into custody. Clinton was reportedly inside watching a football game at the time and was not harmed.

The incident was six weeks after Frank Eugene Corder crashed a Cessna into the south lawn of the White House, and prompted debate about closing off traffic on that area of Pennsylvania Avenue. No one was injured in the assassination attempt.

Trial The most important charges in Duran's two-week trial were attempted murder of the president and four counts of assaulting a federal officer (gained while resisting the Secret Service agents). As Duran had previously been convicted of a felony (the Army vehicle ramming incident in 1990), he was not meant to own a firearm and was thus 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. Prosecutors argued he was faking insanity and called more than 60 witnesses to testify that Duran hated government in general and Clinton in particular. The jury deliberated for under five hours to reject the insanity defense and arrive at the guilty verdict.