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Francisco Martin Duran

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Francisco Martin Duran
Born (1968-09-08) September 8, 1968 (age 56)
Barelas, Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.
OccupationCriminal
Criminal statusIncarcerated
Children1
Criminal chargeAttempted assassination of U.S. president Bill Clinton
Assault of a federal officer (4 counts)
Penalty40 years imprisonment

Francisco Martin Duran (/dəˈræn/; born September 8, 1968) is an American convicted criminal and attempted assassin who, on October 29, 1994, fired 29 rounds from an SKS 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

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Duran was born in Barelas, an inner-city neighborhood of Albuquerque, New Mexico.[1] 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.[1]

Duran was arrested at 17 and charged with the attempted theft of a front-end loader that he was going to take for a joyride. The judge made a deal with him that he would drop the charges if he enlisted in the United States Army. Duran accepted the judge's deal quickly and willingly, and his mother gave her consent as he was a minor.[1]

Military career

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After basic training, Duran was selected as a medical specialist. His first tour of duty was with the 25th Light Infantry Division in Hawaii. He was an unremarkable soldier. During this tour he fell in love and had a son; he was married shortly after.[1]

On August 9, 1990, Duran and a group of Army friends got drunk at a bowling alley and were asked to leave when an argument broke out between the soldiers and some civilians about the soldiers' boisterous behavior. When the civilians blocked Duran as he tried to leave in his car, Duran confronted one of the civilians and drove away before returning and driving into the crowd outside, injuring a woman, before driving away.[1] He was stopped and arrested by military police.[1]

Duran was court-martialed and found guilty of drunk driving, aggravated assault, drunken and disorderly conduct, and leaving the scene of an accident. He was stripped of rank and sentenced to five years in prison at the United States Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.[2] He was released after two and a half years in 1993.[1]

After his release, Duran settled in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and worked as an upholsterer.[3]

Attempted assassination of Bill Clinton

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On October 29, 1994, Duran, dressed in a trench coat, approached the fence overlooking the north lawn of the White House and fired 29 7.62×39mm rounds from a SKS semi-automatic rifle (specifically a Chinese-made Type 56 copy)[4] at a group of tourists wearing suits on the White House lawn, specifically a tourist whose haircut was said to resemble that of U.S. 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.[3]

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.[citation needed]

Trial

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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 1993), 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.[5][3] He was sentenced to 40 years in prison by US District Court Judge Charles Robert Richey.[6][3]

As of 2021, Duran is serving his sentence at the high-security United States Penitentiary, Lee. The Federal Bureau of Prisons projects his release date to be 2029.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Clarke, James W.; Lucente, Seth (2003). "Getting Even: Some Observations on President Clinton's Would-Be Assassin, Francisco Martin Duran". British Journal of Political Science. 33 (1): 129–139. doi:10.1017/S0007123403000061 (inactive January 11, 2025). ISSN 0007-1234. JSTOR 4092271. S2CID 154605568.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2025 (link)
  2. ^ Rimer, Sara (November 7, 1994). "Few Knew of White House Suspect's Turmoil". The New York Times. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d Associated Press: "Court Sentences Man to 40 Years For Trying to Kill the President," June 30, 1995, New York Times, retrieved July 14, 2024
  4. ^ "Public Report of the White House Security Review". c. 1995. Archived from the original on September 23, 2006. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
  5. ^ Locy, Toni (April 5, 1995). "Duran Convicted Of Trying to Kill President Clinton". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 5, 2009.
  6. ^ Roper, John. "Duran: 40 years for White House shooting". UPI. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  7. ^ Inmate Locator, Federal Bureau of Prisons Archived November 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. Access date 28 June 2011.
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