Jurors in the chokehold manslaughter case against Daniel Pennyas were requested to watch police and witness footage on Wednesday after his attorneys claimed that the Marine veteran was being harassed by an aggressive demonstrator outside the courthouse in New York City.
The anonymous jury requested a second look at the body camera footage of the police who responded to the subway car where Penny seized hold of Jordan Neely, a tense man whose words and actions were terrifying other passengers, within an hour of the second day of deliberations beginning.
Jurors also wanted to watch police footage of Penny’s station house interview with investigators and video taken by a Mexican journalist on the train that shows a large portion of the nearly six-minute restraint.
Penny has entered a not guilty plea to charges of criminally negligent murder and manslaughter. His defense argues that he had good reason to defend other metro passengers from Neely because he thought the man would be hurting someone.
Penny aggressively grabbed Neely’s neck too hard and for too long, according to the prosecution. Although the defense argues that Neely’s death was caused by a combination of drug use, schizophrenia, a hereditary issue, and his battle with Penny, city medical examiners concluded that the chokehold was the cause of his death.
The case has sparked discussions about public safety, how society handles mental illness and homelessness, where to draw the line between aggressiveness and self-defense, and how race plays a part in all of this. Neely was Black, and Penny is White.
As Penny comes and goes, a few demonstrators have regularly congregated outside the courthouse to voice their disapproval. Additionally, some Penny fans have shown up, occasionally brandishing a flag.
At one point during the trial, a protester followed Penny to a waiting car and rapped on the doors, defense attorney Thomas Kenniff claimed in court on Wednesday. The lawyer claimed that when the same man showed up on Wednesday, he began hurling nasty obscenities at Penny.
As Penny was walking to court, an Associated Press reporter saw someone make a sarcastic and demeaning comment to him.
Kenniff urged Judge Maxwell Wiley to prohibit the guy, claiming that he had occasionally been in the courtroom audience.
Wiley declined, citing the public’s right to view court proceedings, while claiming to have witnessed the vehicle incident from his office window. He claimed that although court officials had occasionally barred people from entering the courthouse due to their behavior within, he had no intention of excluding anyone for their actions outside.
Penny’s lawyers were worried that the jury would hear the demonstrators early in the trial. Their yells often occur before jurors are seated or after they depart, though occasionally they can be heard through the windows of the courthouse.
On Wednesday, Kenniff expressed concern out loud about whether the ruckus could be heard in the jury room. Wiley stated that he has instructed jurors to disregard any information they may receive from sources outside the courtroom and that shifting the deliberations to a different location could make it more difficult to safely transport jury notes into court.
The judge stated, “I believe we will assume that they are following their instructions at this point.”
Witnesses claimed that on May 1, 2023, Neely boarded a train in Manhattan, began acting strangely, shouted about his hunger and thirst, and declared that he was prepared to die, go to jail, or, as Penny and a few other passengers remembered, to kill.
Penny approached Neely from behind, seized his head and neck, and dragged him to the ground. In order to be sure he wouldn’t harm anyone, the veteran later told authorities that he just put him in a chokehold and let him go.
During their roughly three hours of deliberation on Tuesday, the jurors also requested to repeat the judge’s instructions regarding justification defenses and the specifics of the charges.
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