Did a DEMON force Arne Cheyenne Jackson to kill? DailyMail.com examines the haunting true story behind the new Netflix doc The Devil on Trial

On February 16, 1980, Arne Cheyenne Jackson brutally stabbed his landlord, Alan Bono, 20 times with a five-inch pocketknife. 

Jackson was arrested and tried for murder but his lawyer, Martin Minnella, took an approach to his defense that had never before been seen in a U.S. courtroom: not guilty by reason of demonic possession.

The defendant claimed that he was possessed by the devil and the devil made him do it. His outlandish excuse was backed by eye-witnesses, as well as the family of his fiancée at the time who had just recently performed several exorcisms on an 11-year-old relative who was also believed to have been possessed. 

At the time of trial, stories of demonic possession and the occult permeated the news. The country was in the grips of what is now called 'the satanic panic', a wide reaching, unfounded conspiracy that devil worshiping cults were operating across the U.S, regularly abusing innocent people in ritual sacrifices. 

This court case is being unraveled in the new Netflix documentary, The Devil On Trial, which dropped on the streaming platform October 17.