Gunman Is Convicted Of Trying To Kill Clinton -- Federal Jury Rejects Insanity Defense

WASHINGTON - A federal jury, rejecting arguments that Francisco Martin Duran was insane when he fired a rifle at the White House, yesterday convicted him of trying to assassinate President Clinton.

Duran also was convicted of assaulting four Secret Service officers, unlawful possession of the semiautomatic rifle and a shotgun, damaging federal property, using a weapon during a crime of violence and transporting a firearm across state lines with the intention to kill the president.

He could be sentenced to life in prison.

After waiting outside the White House for hours last Oct. 29, Duran suddenly pulled the weapon from under his trenchcoat and sprayed the front of the executive mansion with nearly 30 bullets. No one was hurt.

A teenager who was standing next to the gunman testified that Duran began shooting after he overheard the youth say a man standing next to the White House looked like Clinton.

Clinton was inside the White House's family quarters at the time, watching a football game.

Two tourists tackled Duran and held him down while Secret Service officers ran across the White House's front lawn and jumped a wrought-iron fence to arrest him.

During a two-week trial, Duran's defense attorneys, public defenders A.J. Kramer and Leigh Kenny, argued that their client is a paranoid schizophrenic who is troubled by visions and imaginary voices.

Duran thought he was saving the world by firing at what he thought was a "mist" hovering over the White House, they said.

Beginning in March 1994, Duran suffered a series of hallucinations during which a multicolored alien being told him of a "mist" that had been hanging over the White House for 1,000 years, according to two psychiatrists and a psychologist who testified for the defense.

Duran, 26, left his Colorado Springs, Colo., home in a pickup truck Sept. 30 believing that he had been chosen to kill the "mist," which would take over Clinton's mind and lead him to destroy the world.

Results of 17 psychological tests Duran took showed clear evidence of paranoid schizophrenia, said David Schretlen, a Johns Hopkins University psychologist who is an expert in detecting lying on the tests.

But prosecutor Eric Dubelier called the defense's case "total nonsense" and accused Duran of faking mental illness to evade responsibility for his actions.

Two psychiatrists and a psychologist called to the stand by the prosecution said they were confident that Duran wasn't insane.