https://archive.is/WjaUNA Manhattan jury has cleared Daniel Penny of criminal wrongdoing in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a crowded subway — a caught-on-video killing that sparked fierce debate over the city’s mental health system and crime underground.
The panelists acquitted Penny of criminally negligent homicide — which could have put him behind bars for up to four years — in Neely’s chokehold death aboard a crowded uptown F train in May 2023.
Manslaughter, the top charge against Penny, was tossed on Friday after jurors twice said they couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict.
Jurors sided with Penny’s defense attorneys, who had argued that the Marine veteran was justified in rushing to protect his fellow subway straphangers when he subdued the erratic homeless man. The lawyers had also questioned whether there was sufficient evidence that the chokehold caused Neely’s death.
“Who do you want on the next train ride with you?” one of his lawyers, Steven Raiser, in his closing statement in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“The guy with the earbuds minding his own business who you know would be there for you if something happened? Or perhaps you just hope that someone like Jordan Neely does not enter that train when you are all alone, all alone in a crowd of others frozen with fear?”
The acquittal comes after jurors heard from more than 40 witnesses, including passengers who described Neely’s terrifying outburst on the train before Penny approached him from behind and took him down at the Broadway-Lafayette station.
One straphanger testified she was “scared s–tless” hearing Neely ranting about being “willing to die and go to jail.” She later thanked Penny for stepping in to restrain Neely, who also raged that “someone is going to die today.”
Another woman on the train told jurors that she feared for her life after hearing Neely’s “satanic” rant.
[ + ] Dindu
[ - ] Dindu 19 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 12:30:41 ago (+19/-0)
[ + ] HatefulHomelessMan
[ - ] HatefulHomelessMan 2 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 20:30:33 ago (+2/-0)
[ + ] x0x7
[ - ] x0x7 0 points 4 monthsDec 10, 2024 01:28:09 ago (+0/-0)
But if he was convicted he would have been convicted by the clown world regime he's defended on the global stage. Just like Chauven was convicted by the system he spent his life propping up. Chauven got what he deserved. He didn't deserve it for "killing" Floyd. He deserved it for pushing thousands of people through the same clown system, and his arm got caught in the grinder.
[ + ] ProudRebel
[ - ] ProudRebel 10 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 11:59:47 ago (+13/-3)
[ + ] NeedleStack
[ - ] NeedleStack [op] 10 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 12:02:59 ago (+10/-0)
[ + ] PotatoWhisperer2
[ - ] PotatoWhisperer2 7 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 12:44:04 ago (+7/-0)
[ + ] x0x7
[ - ] x0x7 0 points 4 monthsDec 10, 2024 01:33:07 ago (+0/-0)
Half the niggers would have been laughing at Floyd while it was happening if they were present. 80% of them would have recorded it on their facebook live hoping to become famous.
[ + ] Nosferatjew
[ - ] Nosferatjew 5 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 12:37:05 ago (+5/-0)
[ + ] ProudRebel
[ - ] ProudRebel 1 point 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 14:54:31 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] Prairie
[ - ] Prairie 2 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 15:28:27 ago (+2/-0)
[ + ] NoRefunds
[ - ] NoRefunds 9 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 13:24:14 ago (+9/-0)
[ + ] Anus_Expander
[ - ] Anus_Expander 1 point 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 17:02:27 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] Gowithit
[ - ] Gowithit 2 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 17:14:58 ago (+2/-0)
[ + ] Anus_Expander
[ - ] Anus_Expander 2 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 17:44:19 ago (+2/-0)
[ + ] NeedleStack
[ - ] NeedleStack [op] 6 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 12:00:49 ago (+6/-0)
[ + ] ProudRebel
[ - ] ProudRebel 2 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 15:13:26 ago (+2/-0)
[ + ] bonghits4jeebus
[ - ] bonghits4jeebus 5 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 13:18:42 ago (+5/-0)
[ + ] CoronaHoax
[ - ] CoronaHoax 2 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 13:43:17 ago (+2/-0)
[ + ] PostWallHelena
[ - ] PostWallHelena 5 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 12:27:00 ago (+5/-0)
[ + ] bonghits4jeebus
[ - ] bonghits4jeebus 2 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 13:19:25 ago (+2/-0)
[ + ] Anus_Expander
[ - ] Anus_Expander 4 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 17:01:41 ago (+4/-0)
[ + ] hylo
[ - ] hylo 0 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 22:32:15 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] WNwoman
[ - ] WNwoman 4 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 12:59:34 ago (+4/-0)
[ + ] dulcima
[ - ] dulcima 0 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 19:03:56 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] NeedleStack
[ - ] NeedleStack [op] 4 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 11:56:57 ago (+4/-0)
And a mother who was taking her 5-year-old son to a doctor’s appointment testified that she was so scared of a “belligerent and unhinged” Neely that she barricaded her son behind his stroller.
No witness testified that Neely put his hands on anyone, or lunged at a specific person, before Penny put him in the chokehold. Evidence during the month-long trial also revealed that Neely was not carrying a weapon at the time — with cops finding only a muffin in his pocket.
The polarizing case kicked off fierce conversation about a mentally ill man who was failed by the city’s broken system — a sentiment even Mayor Eric Adams expressed, saying Penny did “what we should have done as a city” by protecting others that day.
Prosecutors argued that Penny went “too far” — and that his actions turned criminal when he kept Neely in the hold after nearly all of the frightened passengers had fled the train.
“What’s so tragic about this case is that even though the defendant started out trying to do the right thing, as the chokehold progressed, the defendant knew that Jordan Neely was in great distress and dying, and he needlessly continued,” prosecutor Dafna Yoran said in her closing statement.
Jurors watched frame-by-frame footage from a bystander’s six-minute video of Penny holding Neely — including for 51 seconds after Neely’s body appears to go limp. Penny kept holding Neely despite witnesses pleading with him to “let him go!,” the video shows.
Dr. Cynthia Harris, who ruled that Neely’s death was a homicide caused by Penny’s chokehold, pointed out for jurors the exact moment when Neely passed out on the subway car’s floor — with Penny still wrapping his arm around Neely’s neck.
The city medical examiner, who made her ruling before Neely’s toxicology report came back, testified that she was so confident after watching video of the encounter that she’d stand by her decision even if it later turned out that Neely had enough drugs in his body “to put down an elephant.”
Jurors asked for a readback of that specific portion of Harris’ testimony during deliberations.
Trial evidence revealed that Neely had the synthetic marijuana drug K2 in his system at the time of the confrontation. Jurors also heard that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, telling doctors in 2021 that he’d heard the “devil’s voice.”
Penny’s mother, sister, friends and fellow Marines took the stand to vouch for his character.
The defense’s medical expert, forensic pathologist Dr. Satish Chundru, claimed that Neely died not from Penny’s chokehold, but by “the combined effects of sickle cell crisis, the schizophrenia, the struggle and restraint, and the synthetic marijuana.”
[ + ] NeedleStack
[ - ] NeedleStack [op] 4 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 11:58:48 ago (+4/-0)
Hours later, at Chinatown’s 5th Precinct, a relaxed Penny insisted during an interrogation that he was merely trying to “de-escalate the situation” and that he didn’t mean to hurt Neely.
“I’m not trying to kill the guy,” the Marine veteran told two detectives, as prosecutors watched him through a one-sided mirror. “I’m just trying to keep him from hurting anybody else.”
In an apparent reference to the mentally ill Neely, Penny added during his questioning that “all these people are pushing people in front of the train and stuff.”
Neely’s death, and Penny’s arrest 11 days later, sparked a national political firestorm about whether Penny’s actions were justified.
The episode also sparked outrage about how Neely fell through the cracks of the city’s mental health system, failing to get the treatment he needed despite the NYPD treating him as an “emotionally disturbed person” in more than two dozen prior encounters with him.
“This case is about a broken system, a broken system that does not help our mentally ill or
our unhoused,” Penny’s attorney Raiser said at the end of his closing statement.
“In fact, it is that broken system that led us, that is interwoven into the very fabric of this case.”
[ + ] Ragnar
[ - ] Ragnar 3 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 14:21:52 ago (+3/-0)
But what the heck is a sickle cell crisis?
[ + ] SumerBreeze
[ - ] SumerBreeze 4 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 14:48:06 ago (+4/-0)
lol it’s already a great day
[ + ] PostWallHelena
[ - ] PostWallHelena 0 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 17:10:53 ago (+0/-0)
[ + ] happytoes
[ - ] happytoes 0 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 16:01:49 ago (+0/-0)
Main way that a sickle cell crisis can kill Acute chest syndrome
[ + ] TheOriginal1Icemonkey
[ - ] TheOriginal1Icemonkey 3 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 12:31:30 ago (+3/-0)
[ + ] RMGoetbbels
[ - ] RMGoetbbels 2 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 15:22:26 ago (+2/-0)
I'm sure there are 50+ people that are glad he did but at the end of the day he is saddled with thousands upon thousands of dollars of legal fees and had his freedom threatened.
Even in this article he was threatened with "it's a small world buddy" and you can't really know whether or not it's credible.
I can't personally say I would or would not make the same decision because there are too many factors but it doesn't look good for the nation.
[ + ] PoundOfFlesh
[ - ] PoundOfFlesh 2 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 13:39:06 ago (+2/-0)
[ + ] Moravian
[ - ] Moravian 1 point 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 23:08:35 ago (+1/-0)
Just as a person is responsible for their dog if it hurts people, parents should be responsible for the children if they hurt people. It's not societies problem that some nigger has mental problems. You want to have kids then take care of them, otherwise society will as in this case.
[ + ] Sleazy
[ - ] Sleazy 1 point 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 16:53:19 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] Anus_Expander
[ - ] Anus_Expander 2 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 17:04:55 ago (+2/-0)
[ + ] Sleazy
[ - ] Sleazy 1 point 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 17:16:57 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] HomerSampson
[ - ] HomerSampson 1 point 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 15:51:31 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] bonghits4jeebus
[ - ] bonghits4jeebus 1 point 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 13:29:50 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] the_old_ones
[ - ] the_old_ones 1 point 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 12:37:22 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] NeedleStack
[ - ] NeedleStack [op] 2 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 12:38:34 ago (+2/-0)
[ + ] uvulectomy
[ - ] uvulectomy 4 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 13:10:49 ago (+4/-0)
[ + ] Sal_180
[ - ] Sal_180 3 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 13:54:12 ago (+3/-0)
[ + ] dassar
[ - ] dassar 1 point 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 13:48:37 ago (+1/-0)
[ + ] NeedleStack
[ - ] NeedleStack [op] 2 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 14:08:50 ago (+2/-0)
[ + ] Smedleys_Butler
[ - ] Smedleys_Butler 0 points 4 monthsDec 9, 2024 22:25:53 ago (+0/-0)