Daniel Penny prosecutor Dafna Yoran’s breathtaking ‘hypocrisy’ revealed as she demands manslaughter conviction

The prosecutor trying Daniel Penny is a hardline progressive who once bragged about catching a robber who killed an 87-year-old on a murder charge.

Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Dafna Yoran has asked jurors to convict the Navy veteran of manslaughter over the subway death of Jordan Neely, despite previously pushing for “restorative justice” for criminals.

In 2019, she asked for a reduced sentence for Matthew Lee, 57, after killing former Lehman College professor Dr. Young Kun had sneaked up on Kim, 87, and killed him for more than $300 with a fatal blow to the head.

The gruesome incident was captured on video.

Yoran saw Lee’s case as an opportunity to leverage the “restorative justice” program introduced by former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., as reported by Gothamist.

Lee was charged with manslaughter instead of murder after he agreed to meet with the victim’s family and both parties agreed to the outcome. This reduced his potential sentence from 25 years to life to 10 years. He will be eligible for parole in 2026.

“I had a murder case where the suspect did not deliberately kill the victim,” Yoran boasted during an online seminar.

‘When I had the time, I took the time to find out more about the defendant… I felt incredibly sorry for him that he had gotten to that point in his life where he felt there was no other choice than to commit this robbery.’

Yoran asked for a reduced sentence for Matthew Lee, 57, after killing Professor Dr. Young Kun had sneaked up on Kim, 87, and killed him for more than $300

Dr. Kim’s family met with his killer and they agreed to a reduced charge of manslaughter instead of murder.

But Yoran has definitely taken a tougher approach in the case of 26-year-old Penny. She demands a possible prison sentence of fifteen years, even though Penny has always claimed that he did not intend to kill Neely, but acted after the homeless man threatened other train passengers.

While she discussed Lee as a man in despair after having fallen on hard times, she has maintained a confrontational attitude towards Penny throughout his trial, with witnesses she brought to the witness stand calling him “the white man” and ” called murderer.

“He didn’t recognize that Jordan Neely was a person,” Yoran told Penny’s jury. “He saw him as a person who needed to be eliminated.”

Jurors deliberate on Penny’s fate in a case that has sparked national debate.

The anonymous jury is weighing charges of manslaughter and negligent homicide in the death of 30-year-old Neely, a troubled street artist who was homeless. The veteran has insisted his actions were justified.

Penny has said he was protecting fellow subway riders and only intended to restrain and hold Neely for police, not to hurt him. Prosecutors say the Marine veteran used far too much force for too long when he held Neely by the neck for six minutes.

The case has animated debate about public safety, societal responses to mental illness and homelessness, the line between self-defense and aggression, and the role of race in it all.

Reflecting the complexity of the closely watched case, within the first 75 minutes of deliberation the jury asked to repeat Judge Maxwell Wiley’s instructions on the defense of justification and on the definitions of the crimes charged .

After the rereading and another 90 minutes of deliberation, the jurors went home Tuesday without reaching a verdict.

Yoran has taken a different approach to 26-year-old Penny’s case, asking for a possible 15-year sentence for Neely’s death

She has maintained a confrontational attitude towards Penny throughout his trial, calling him ‘the white man’ and ‘murderer’.

Witnesses said that on May 1, 2023, Neely boarded a train beneath Manhattan, began moving erratically, shouted about his hunger and thirst and proclaimed that he was prepared to die, go to jail or — like Penny and some other passengers remembered – to kill.

Penny came up behind Neely, grabbed his neck and head and took him to the ground. The veteran later told police that he had kept Neely “in a chokehold” and “kicked him out” to make sure he wouldn’t hurt anyone.

City medical examiners ruled that Neely was killed by his neck being crushed in a chokehold. A pathologist hired by Penny’s defense disputed this finding and attributed the death to a number of other factors.

Penny’s lawyers argued that he used what they call “civilian restraint,” a departure from the chokehold technique he learned in the military, to control Neely without rendering him unconscious. Prosecutors say Neely had the training to know what he did could be deadly.

Wiley told jurors Tuesday that if they convict Penny of manslaughter, they will not be asked to rule on the lesser charge of negligent homicide. If they decide he is not guilty of manslaughter, they will consider the second charge.

Neely, 30, was once part of the city’s corps of subway and street performers and was known for his Michael Jackson impersonations. He had a long criminal record and suffered from psychological problems

In manslaughter, it must be proven that the suspect recklessly caused the death of someone else. The standard means, among other things, that consciously no account is taken of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that an action will be fatal.

In contrast, negligent homicide involves committing serious ‘culpable conduct’ without recognizing such a risk.

Both charges are felonies. Neither carries a mandatory prison sentence, but both have the option of doing so: up to fifteen years for manslaughter, or four years for criminally negligent homicide.

Deliberations will resume on Wednesday.