(Matthew Doarnberger, Headline USA) Jury selection has begun for the trial of Daniel Penny, the Marine Corps veteran accused of killing Jordan Neely on a New York City subway car back in May 2023.
Neely, a homeless man with a history of mental illness, was placed in a chokehold by Penny after making a series of violent threats against other passengers. According to eyewitnesses, Neely was seen saying that he was “hungry, thirsty and ready to kill someone.”
Prosecutors said they would not be disputing that he was acting in an aggressive manner.
Both the prosecution and the defense say that a four-minute video of the altercation would be used to bolster the case for their side.
Prosecutors will bring up that Penny kept his chokehold on Neely for nearly six minutes in an attempt to subdue him.
“The notion that death is not a foreseeable consequence of squeezing someone’s neck for six minutes is beyond the pale,” wrote the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in November 2023, according to the New York Post.
Penny’s defense lawyers will the medical examiner. who testified to the grand jury never gave any evidence that Neely had died from asphyxiation due to the chokehold, the Post reported.
“The fact that [the examiner] did not testify that he did, in fact, die from asphyxiation, can only be explained by a lack of evidence to support such a conclusion,” the defense lawyers said.
Should the judge in the case allow it, the defense could bring up Neely’s chronic abuse of the drug K2, which he had in his system at the time of his death.
The case is likely to hinge on the testimony of eyewitnesses to the incident. On that front, defense attorney Steve Raiser told USA Today that his side would have the advantage.
“The people on that train with Danny feared for their lives,” Raiser said.
“Nearly everybody there who testified that was in the reach of Mr. Neely was afraid of him,” Raiser continued. “We have to remember that Mr. Neely was making threats that he was going to kill people.”
Unsurprisingly, the issue of race has played a significant part in the fallout of the case. Since Penny is white and Neely is black, accusations of racism have surfaced.
Members of the December 12 Movement, an advocacy group that pushed for Penny’s prosecution, maintained that Neely’s death was racially motivated.
“Daniel Penny is a civilian, an ex-Marine who was trained to kill people,” said member Roger Wareham.
“Daniel Penny killed Jordan Neely not in self-defense, but rather an arrogant flex of muscle to kill a nuisance,” said member Christian Joseph.
Imani Henry, who belongs to a Black Lives Matter organization in Brooklyn, also expressed frustration over the city not doing enough for those with mental-health issues.
“Jordan Neely was loved in his communities,” Henry claimed.
“He was a brother, he was a community member. He was a performer,” Henry continued, making reference to the homeless man’s tendency to do Michael Jackson’s “Moonwalk” while busking for money in the Subway. “To continue to keep just focusing on his mental- health condition is just unfair and wrong, because we are not simply one component of our lives. We are full and complex people.”
The New York Subway System experienced a sharp rise in lawlessness as major crimes increased 45% in January of this year.
As a result, an additional 1,000 police officers were assigned to the subway system the following month. A month later, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed an additional 750 members of the National Guard and 250 state troopers from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to the subways.
Penny faces charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. He faces a maximum of 15 years in prison if convicted.
