Jury to hear opening statements in trial of veteran charged in subway chokehold death
NEW YORK– Opening statements are scheduled for Friday in the manslaughter trial against Daniel Pennya white Marine veteran accused of strangling an ailing black subway rider to death.
An anonymous jury in Manhattan will decide the manslaughter case surrounding the death of Jordan Neely in 2023. Prosecutors call this a reckless killing, but Penny says it was self-defense. The case has shaken fault lines around race, homelessness, perceptions of public safety and bystander responsibility.
Penny’s critics see him as a vigilante killer of an unarmed man who behaved erratically and made horrible statements, but had not attacked anyone on the subway. Supporters credit Penny, 25, with taking action to protect frightened subway passengers — action he said was intended to defuse, not kill.
Both camps have held demonstrations and the case was incorporated into the divided politics of the United States as Republican officials spoke for Penny and Democratic attended Neely’s funeral.
“This is not an easy case of a bad man doing something bad,” prosecutor Dafna Yoran told potential jurors during the hearing. selection process. While Penny’s intentions may have been commendable, she said, “what we’re going to ask you to see is whether he’s gone too far.”
Penny’s attorney Steven Raiser, meanwhile, has said a conviction “will have a chilling effect on the right and duty of every New Yorker to stand up for each other.”
Jurors, who were questioned about their own subway experienceswill hear opening statements and possibly some witness statements Friday. It is not clear who will be prosecutors’ first witness.
Neely’s life was blighted by mental illness and drug abuse after his mother was murdered and stuffed into a suitcase when he was a teenager, his family says. At 30, he sometimes entertained subway passengers as a Michael Jackson impersonator, but he also had a criminal record, including assaulting a woman at a subway station.
Penny, who had served in the Marines for four years, said he was going from a college class to a gym when he ran into Neely on the subway on May 1, 2023.
Neely begged for money, shouted that she was willing to die or go to jail, and made sudden movements, according to witnesses. Some were alarmed, others blasé, according to court documents.
Penny, who has said Neely was threatening people, put his arm around the man’s neck and put him on the ground.
While a bystander captured part of the encounter on video, Penny held Neely for about six minutes, prosecutors wrote in court filings. The watch continued as the train stopped, many people got off, two others helped restrain Neely, and another warned Penny, “If you don’t let him go now, you’re going to kill him.”
Penny eventually released Neely almost a minute after his body went limp, prosecutors said.
“I kicked him out,” Penny told police. He later added that he simply wanted to “de-escalate” the tense situation and was not trying to injure Neely, but rather “to avoid hurting anyone else.”
City medical researchers determined that Neely died of neck compression. Penny’s attorneys have indicated they plan to challenge this finding.
They tried unsuccessfully to prevent jurors from hearing any evidence, including Neely’s lack of a weapon and Penny’s statement to detectives.
Judge Maxwell Wiley denied both requests. He ruled that Penny willingly spoke to investigators without an attorney, and that the question of whether Neely was armed — whether anyone could reasonably have believed he was — is relevant.