A protection lawyer requested jurors to place themselves within the footwear of frightened subway riders as closing arguments started Monday within the trial of Marine veteran Daniel Penny, charged with choking an irate, homeless man to demise after an outburst on an uptown F subway practice.
Penny claims he acted in self-defense in opposition to threatening habits when he put Jordan Neely in a chokehold on Could 1, 2023. Penny has pleaded not responsible to manslaughter and criminally negligent murder.
Protection legal professional Steven Raiser advised jurors to think about they had been on that practice when Neely acquired on, “filled with rage and not afraid of any consequences.” Witnesses stated Neely shouted about being keen to die, keen to go jail or — as Penny recalled — keen to kill.
“You’re sitting much as you are now, in this tightly confined space. You have very little room to move and none to run,” protection legal professional Steven Raiser advised jurors.
“Danny acted to save those people,” he added.
Prosecutors may have their probability to deal with the jury later.
Penny’s response to Neely touched uncooked nerves and fueled debate about race relations, public security, city life and totally different approaches to crime, homelessness and psychological sickness.
Some in New York and across the nation see Penny, a 26-year-old Marine veteran turned structure scholar, as a valiant protector of fellow subway riders who feared the erratic Neely was on the verge of violence. Others view Penny as a white vigilante who summarily killed a Black man who was in want of assist.
Neely, 30, as soon as was among the many metropolis’s corps of subway and avenue performers and was recognized for his Michael Jackson impersonations. However after his mom was violently killed when he was a young person, Neely was identified with melancholy and schizophrenia, was repeatedly hospitalized, struggled with drug abuse and had a felony report that included assault convictions.
In the course of the monthlong trial, the nameless jury heard testimony from subway passengers who witnessed the roughly six-minute chokehold, in addition to police who responded to it, pathologists, a psychiatric knowledgeable, a Marine Corps teacher who taught Penny chokehold methods and Penny’s kin, pals and fellow Marines. Penny selected to not testify.
Jurors watched movies recorded by bystanders and by police physique cameras and noticed how Penny defined his actions to officers on the scene and later in a stationhouse interview room.
“I just wanted to keep him from getting to people,” he advised detectives, demonstrating the chokehold and describing Neely as “a crackhead” who was “acting like a lunatic.”
“I’m not trying to kill the guy,” he insisted.
A number of witnesses stated Neely shouted about needing meals and one thing to drink, whipped his jacket to the ground and began screaming. They differed in descriptions of his actions and whether or not they had been threatening. A number of passengers stated they had been alarmed, and a few had been grateful when Penny subdued Neely.
Metropolis medical experts dominated the chokehold killed Neely. A pathologist employed by Penny’s protection contradicted that discovering.
Prosecutors say Penny supposed to guard folks however used an excessive amount of drive, detached to the human life he was holding in his arms. Prosecutors have famous the veteran continued to grip Neely’s neck after the practice stopped and anybody who needed to get out may achieve this, after bystanders urged Penny to let go, and even after Neely had been nonetheless for almost a minute.
The protection contends Penny held on as a result of Neely tried to interrupt unfastened at factors and that the strain on the person’s neck wasn’t constant sufficient to kill him.
“He applied what he learned as a U.S. Marine in a less aggressive way than he was taught,” Raiser advised jurors. He contended that Penny needed solely to carry Neely for police, and so used a “simple civilian restraint” as a substitute of a “textbook chokehold” that may be utilized to render somebody unconscious.
Officers arrived 12 minutes after beginning to obtain 911 calls in regards to the battle within the stopped practice, Raiser famous.
He additionally emphasised the protection pathology knowledgeable’s testimony that Neely was killed by quite a lot of elements however not the chokehold.
JENNIFER PELTZ for the Related Press
Initially Printed: December 2, 2024 at 12:56 PM EST
