By Justin Bailey
A Manhattan jury has found Daniel Penny not guilty on criminally negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely.
Marine veteran Penny, 26, placed 30-year-old Neely in a chokehold after Neely behaved in a threatening manner on a New York City subway. Witnesses said Neely, a homeless man, was yelling and acting erratically on the F train after boarding, adding that they felt threatened by his behavior. At trial, jurors heard testimony that Neely said “I’ll hurt everyone here! I’ll kill you! I don’t care if I go to prison!” Prosecutors said Penny held Neely in a chokehold for approximately six minutes.
The more serious charge of second-degree manslaughter was dismissed last week after the jury was hung.
Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the charges against Daniel Penny on June 28, 2023. Penny faced as many as 15 years behind bars. The veteran and architecture student pleaded not guilty. (RELATED: Bodycam Footage Reveal Throws Major Wrench In Daniel Penny Prosecution)
New York City and the state of New York have faced an uptick in crime in recent years. City residents have said that the general quality of life has decreased as violent crime has risen, with under half of New Yorkers saying they felt safe using the subway in 2023. Liberal prosecutors, including Bragg, have been criticized for “soft-on-crime” policies, including a refusal to prosecute repeat-offenders. Jordan Neely was arrested 42 times prior to the subway altercation.
Pundits have argued that Penny being white while Neely was black played a role in the veteran being charged by Bragg’s office. Penny’s defense requested a mistrial, telling the judge that protesters were issuing veiled threats against the jurors. The judge denied the motion.
Penny gave his perspective of the incident in a June 2023 interview with Law&Crime Network.
He told the outlet Neely boarded the subway while appearing to be on drugs, then behaved erratically toward others while yelling. Penny said he took out his headphones. “The three main threats that he repeated over and over was, “I’m going to kill you,’ ‘I’m prepared to go to jail for life’ and ‘I’m willing to die,’” the veteran told the outlet.
Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran wrapped up her closing arguments Tuesday. She told the jury that “as the chokehold progressed, the defendant knew that Jordan Neely was in great distress and dying, and he needlessly continued.”
She said Monday that Neely boarded the F train in an “extremely threatening manner” but claimed “so much less than deadly physical force would have done the job of protecting the passengers from Mr. Neely,” according to ABC News.
MSNBC’s report on the death of Jordan Neely on NYC subway fails to mention that he had previously been arrested over 40 times. pic.twitter.com/X5r7tbPn3N
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 5, 2023
While Yoran told jurors that Penny’s intent was “laudable,” she claimed he held Neely for too long. The prosecutor also disputed the defense’s argument that Neely represented a continued threat to passengers several minutes into the altercation.
“Everyone the defendant wanted to protect had already left the train,” Yoran told the court.
Steven Raiser, Penny’s defense lawyer, closed on both days by asking the jury to place themselves in the train when the incident occurred. On Monday, he employed sound effects and showed police bodycam video featuring passengers telling officers that Neely “scared the living daylights out of everybody.”
Raiser presented the hypothetical to the jury again Tuesday. “Who do you want on that train ride with you?” he asked, according to the New York Post.
A defense lawyer said Monday that a “violent and desperate” Neely boarded the subway in 2023 while “filled with rage and not afraid of any consequences,” ABC News reported. Passengers were “frozen with fear” before the defendant “acted to save those people,” according to the attorney.
Penny’s team disputed the prosecution’s allegation that the veteran kept Neely in place for “way too long.” Raiser told the court his client wanted to release Neely but felt he could not because the homeless man was fighting him.
“Of course, he didn’t. He had to remain in place out of fear that Neely would break free,” the attorney argued.
Dr. Cynthia Harris, medical examiner for the city, testified that Neely suffered “an asphyxial death” due to Penny’s chokehold and added that she considered it “profoundly improbable” that abuse of synthetic marijuana or a sickle cell condition caused his demise, according to The Associated Press (AP).
She claimed “the consensus was unanimous” in the medical examiner’s office that Neely passed due to a chokehold. “There are no alternative reasonable explanations,” she told jurors.
Dr. Satish Chundru, however, testified that Neely’s medical documents and footage captured by witnesses did not appear to show the use of fatal chokehold methods. He told jurors that the areas and degree of bruising on Neely’s neck and the small number of red spots on his eyelids due to bleeding below the surface are inconsistent with a chokehold death.
“In your opinion, did Mr. Penny choke Mr. Neely to death?” Raiser asked Chundru, a former county examiner in Florida and Texas.
“No,” the examiner said, testifying that “the combined effects” of schizophrenia, drug abuse, his resistance and restraint and a blood condition that may result in death due to strain were responsible.
An officer can be heard saying Neely had a pulse in New York Police Department (NYPD) bodycam footage featuring the aftermath of the altercation.
“You got a pulse or no?” one officer queries.
“I feel a pulse,” a second officer replies.
“He’s breathing, right?” the first officer asks.
The video then shows a medic providing Neely chest compressions. (RELATED: Daniel Penny’s Attorney Explains Why He’s Optimistic Manhattan Jury Won’t Try To ‘Right Racial Wrongs’ In His Case)
“He’s unconscious now. He’s not breathing,” one of the officers can be heard saying.
NYPD Officer Teodoro Tejada, the first witness called to the stand, testified that Neely had a “faint pulse” at first but said officers could not find it minutes after, according to the New York Post.
Neely’s autopsy showed indications of K2, or synthetic marijuana, in his system, Penny’s legal team said.
Penny gave his perspective of the incident in a June 2023 interview with Law&Crime Network.
He told the outlet Neely boarded the subway while appearing to be on drugs, then behaved erratically toward others while yelling. Penny said he took out his headphones. “The three main threats that he repeated over and over was, “I’m going to kill you,’ ‘I’m prepared to go to jail for life’ and ‘I’m willing to die,’” the veteran told the outlet.
