Daniel Penny Trial in Jordan Neely Death Enters Fourth Week

The prosecution’s main argument in the trial of Daniel Penny, the Marine veteran who last year placed a homeless Michael impersonator, Jordan Neely, in a fatal chokehold on a New York subway train, is that Mr. Penny has held the stranglehold for too long. As the trial enters its fourth week, an expert will soon testify on the matter.

Last week, witnesses spoke of the terrifying moment when street performer Neely boarded a northbound F train and began shouting that he was hungry and thirsty, ready to go to jail and even ready to die. Witnesses told conflicting stories about whether Neely threatened to kill passengers in the train car. Mr. Penny’s lawyer, Thomas Kenniff, speaking to reporters on Friday, said the testimony proved his client “stood up when other people were walking away” and “did something to protect fellow subway passengers” when he decided to put Neely in jail to stop. in a chokehold and restrain him on the floor of the subway.

The racially charged case — Neely was black and Mr. Penny is white — has drawn protesters from groups like Black Lives Matter and the National Action Network of the Rev. Al Sharpton, who spoke at Neely’s funeral. The protesters are demanding that Mr Penny be punished. Mr. Penny, on the other hand, has benefited from protests on his behalf from residents of Long Island, where he is from. Supporters across the country have raised more than $3 million dollars for Mr. Penny.

Mr Penny is charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide in the death of Neely, who died on that tragic day of May 1, 2023. Combined, the charges could carry a maximum of 19 years in prison. Mr. Penny’s defense team claims he did not intend to kill Neely, but instead tried to de-escalate what he believed was a dangerous situation and prevent an unpredictable aggressor from causing serious damage.

In her opening statement, Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran, who is prosecuting the case for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, agreed, saying, “The defendant did not intend to kill. In fact, his initial intention was commendable: to protect his fellow subway passengers from a man he viewed as a threat. But under the law, deadly physical force, such as a chokehold, is allowed only when absolutely necessary, and only as long as it is absolutely necessary. And here the suspect went way too far.”

Video footage recorded by freelance journalist Juan Alberto Vazquez and played to the jury shows that Mr Penny did indeed hold Neely in a chokehold for five minutes and 53 seconds. It also turned out that the metro had already arrived at the next station, that the doors were open and that passengers had left the metro car. The prosecutor thus argues that there was no longer any danger of being stuck on a moving train with an aggressive man, who witnesses said was ‘threatening’, with some saying he made them fear for their lives, and that there was no need for mr. Penny to continue to have a stranglehold on the victim.

The Rev. Ronald McHenry, who spoke on behalf of the victim’s family, representing Mr Sharpton National Action Networktold reporters on Friday: “We must understand that chokeholds should never be used. In this case, lethal force was used, and it should never be used. If we go back a few years, Eric Garner was choked by police, and we have the Eric Garner chokehold law because as a city we decided that chokeholds should not be used.

Mr. McHenry was referring to the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act, a New York state law that makes it a Class C misdemeanor for police officers to injure or kill someone with a chokehold or similar restraint. The law was passed by the state Assembly in 2020 and signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo. The penalty for violation is a maximum of 15 years in prison.

Eric Garner died in 2014 after being stopped by police on Staten Island for illegally selling loose cigarettes. According to the NYPD, an officer, Daniel Pantaleo, placed Garner in a chokehold for resisting arrest. Before he died, Garner said the words, “I can’t breathe” eleven times. They became a signature protest for Black Lives Matter movements across the country.

Despite nationwide protests, Mr. Pantaleo was not charged in the case (although he was eventually fired years later). But unlike Mr. Pantaleo, who was an acting police officer when he restrained Garner, Mr. Penny was a citizen when he restrained Neely.

“So who are we talking about here?” Mr. McHenry told reporters outside the Manhattan courthouse on Friday afternoon. “We’re talking about Daniel Penny… He’s not an officer. He has no authority whatsoever to do what he did that day. He decided to take the law into his hands… That’s what this case is about. He had no authority to do what he did that day, and we support the family’s outrage.” The pastor made his comments while standing next to Neely’s uncle, Christopher Neely.

In her opening speech, Ms Yoran addressed the issue of the chokehold in detail. “A chokehold is something that all Marines, like the defendant, are trained for for four years,” she said, referring to Mr. Penny’s time serving in the Marine Corps, from which he was honorably discharged.

“You will learn that the defendant has acquired a green belt in the Marine Corps. martial arts program, the third level up,” she explained. “Now chokes are taught for situations where you want to temporarily disable your opponent, but don’t want to kill him… Your opponent will faint. You let go and that gives you the tactical advantage of restraining him in another way in the few seconds it takes him to come back to life; that is the purpose of a stranglehold.”

Ms Yoran argued that Mr Penny acted recklessly when he applied the chokehold because he should have known the force could be fatal if applied for too long. The defense responded in its opening statement that Mr. Penny had no intention of knocking out Neely.

“But Danny,” Kenniff argued, referring to his client, “had no interest in it.”
rendering Mr. Neely unconscious, even if it wouldn’t cause him any harm, his goal was to use the hold – simply restrain him until the police arrived and took over, something that took longer than anyone on that train ever could to expect.

The defense further argued that Mr. Penny attempted to put Neely in an innocent chokehold, saying witnesses “would use terms such as safe, respectful and non-aggressive to describe the manner in which Danny Jordan attempted to subdue Neely.”

On Friday, the defense showed body camera footage of NYPD Officer Jonathan Tand during the cross-examination of one of the witnesses, with a woman telling the officer that “the guy… very respectfully took him down.” That woman was Caedryn Schrunk, who is originally from the Midwest and works for the sports brand Nike. She had previously testified as the Sun reportedthat Neely “had a nervous breakdown” when he boarded the train, and “made life-threatening demands,” saying, according to her, “I don’t care if I die.” I don’t care if you die. Kill me, lock me up.” Mrs. Schrunk described the outburst as “satanic” and testified, “There was a moment when I really thought I was going to die.”

Prosecutors do not deny Neely’s terrifying behavior. Interestingly enough, they are the ones calling these witnesses, who were in the train car when the tragedy unfolded. But they ask each witness if Neely touched anyone, or physically assaulted anyone, or if he was carrying a weapon, which he did not have. However, the prosecutor strongly disagrees with how Mr. Penny enforced the chokehold, stating that after being trained in the Marines, he “was aware of the risk he posed to Jordan Neely’s life by almost in a stranglehold for six minutes. including the 51 seconds after he lost consciousness.”

Ms. Yoran announced in her opening statement that the prosecution would call to the witness stand the martial arts trainer who trained Mr. Penny during his service in the Marines. It is not clear when the Public Prosecution Service will call this witness. But as the trial enters its fourth week, it is highly likely that experts will soon take their stand.

The trial continues on Tuesday and is expected to last until December 9.