NEW YORK As closing arguments in the trial of a Marine veteran accused of killing a homeless man who became enraged following an outburst on a New York subway train, a defense attorney asked jurors to imagine themselves as terrified subway passengers.
Daniel Penny says that when he put Jordan Neely in a chokehold on May 1, 2023, he was acting in self-defense against threatening behavior. Penny has entered a not guilty plea to charges of criminally negligent murder and manslaughter.
Steven Raiser, the defense lawyer, instructed the jury to picture themselves on that train when Neely boarded, furious and unafraid of the repercussions. According to witnesses, Neely yelled that he was willing to kill, die, or go to jail, as Penny remembered.
You’re sitting in this cramped area very much as you are right now. As defense lawyer Steven Raiser explained to jurors, “You have very little room to move and none to run.”
He stated that Danny took action to save those people.
Later, prosecutors will get an opportunity to speak to the jury.
Penny’s response to Neely triggered strong emotions and sparked discussions on public safety, urban life, race relations, and various strategies for dealing with homelessness, criminality, and mental illness.
Some people in New York and across the nation view Penny, a 26-year-old architecture student and former Marine, as a brave guardian of other subway passengers who thought the unpredictable Neely was about to attack. Penny is perceived by some as a white vigilante who killed a Black man who was in need of assistance.
Neely, 30, was well-known for his Michael Jackson impersonations and was formerly part of the city’s corps of street and subway entertainers. However, Neely suffered from melancholy and schizophrenia, was frequently hospitalized, battled drug misuse, and had a criminal record that included assault charges after his mother was brutally murdered when he was a teenager.
The anonymous jury heard testimony from Penny’s relatives, friends, and fellow Marines, as well as from police who responded to the roughly six-minute chokehold, pathologists, a psychiatric expert, a Marine Corps instructor who taught Penny chokehold techniques, and subway passengers who witnessed it. The trial lasted for a month. Penny declined to give a statement.
Jurors observed how Penny justified his actions to officers on the scene and subsequently in a stationhouse interview room by seeing films captured by police body cameras and onlookers.
As he demonstrated the chokehold and described Neely as a crackhead acting like a crazy, he told detectives, “I just wanted to keep him from getting to people.”
He insisted, “I’m not trying to kill the guy.”
Neely yelled that he needed food and drink, threw his jacket to the ground, and began to scream, according to several witnesses. Their descriptions of his movements and their level of menace varied. When Penny restrained Neely, several passengers expressed gratitude, while others expressed worry.
According to city medical examiners, Neely was murdered by the chokehold. That conclusion was refuted by a pathologist that Penny’s defense recruited.
According to the prosecution, Penny used excessive force despite having the intention of protecting others and showing no concern for the human life he was holding. Prosecutors have said that the veteran held onto Neely’s neck for about a minute after the train stopped and anyone wishing to exit could do so, despite the encouragement of onlookers for Penny to release her hold.
The defense argues that Neely attempted to break free at times and that Penny held on because the man’s neck wasn’t consistently under enough pressure to kill him.
Raiser told jurors that he used his U.S. Marine training in a less combative manner than he had been instructed to. He argued that rather than using a standard chokehold that would have rendered someone unconscious, Penny chose to utilize a basic civilian restraint because she merely intended to hold Neely for the police.
According to Raiser, officers arrived 12 minutes after 911 reports regarding the conflict in the stopped train began.
He also highlighted the defense pathology expert’s testimony, which stated that Neely’s death was caused by a number of causes other than the chokehold.
Note: Every piece of content is rigorously reviewed by our team of experienced writers and editors to ensure its accuracy. Our writers use credible sources and adhere to strict fact-checking protocols to verify all claims and data before publication. If an error is identified, we promptly correct it and strive for transparency in all updates, feel free to reach out to us via email. We appreciate your trust and support!
+ There are no comments
Add yours