Jury deliberations begin in veteran Daniel Penny’s trial over using chokehold on Jordan Neely

NEW YORK– Jurors began deliberating and soon revised some of their legal briefs in Tuesday’s newspaper process of a military veteran accused of using a deadly chokehold to subdue a New York subway passenger whose behavior alarmed other passengers.

The anonymous jury weighs manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide at the death of Jordan Neelya troubled street artist who was homeless. The veteran, Daniel Pennyhas pleaded not guilty and claims his actions were justified.

In a reflection of the complexity of the case is being closely monitoredasked the jury within the first 75 minutes of deliberation 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 ninety minutes of deliberation, the jurors went home for the day without reaching a verdict.

Penny, 26, has said he was protecting fellow subway passengers and only intended to restrain and hold Neely for police, not to harm 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.

A small number of protesters, outraged by the death of Neely, who was black, form a tableau of the divisions surrounding the case and routinely wait for Penny, who is white, to arrive at the court, as does a Penny supporter. Several well-known Democratic politicians paid their respects at Neely’s funeral, while Penny received support from prominent Republicans.

New York Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, cited the case this weekend as an illustration of the failure of the mental health system, which ultimately led Neely to make threats on a subway train.

“We must recognize that we have a mental health crisis and that we are not doing enough to solve it,” the mayor said in a speech. WOR-AM radio interview. He added that he did not want to prejudge the jury’s decision.

Neely, 30, sometimes entertained passersby with Michael Jackson impersonations, but also struggled with depression, schizophrenia and drug abuse after his mother was strangled during his teenage years. Penny was an architecture student in college and served in the Marines for four years.

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 put Neely in a chokehold and kicked him out to make sure he didn’t hurt anyone.

City medical researchers ruled that Neely was killed by his neck being crushed in a chokehold. A pathologist hired by Penny’s defense contradicted this findingwith death attributed to a number of other factors.

Penny’s lawyers argued that he used what they call “civil 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.

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, homicide by criminal negligence involves engaging in 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.