Francisco Martin Duran

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. 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 quickly accepted the judge's offer, and his mother gave her consent as he was a minor. == Military career ==

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. He was released after two and a half years in 1993. After his release, Duran settled in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and worked as an upholsterer. == 1994 White House shooting ==

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 Type 56 semi-automatic rifle (a Chinese copy of the SKS) 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. == References ==