In May 2023, the death of Jordan Neely in a crowded Manhattan subway car struck a nerve with New Yorkers after a bystander video of Daniel Penny strangling a troubled homeless man went viral. .
Now, the lightning rod case against Penny – who claims he acted to protect other passengers from Neely, who was making an “insane and threatening” tirade, according to one witness – has finally gone to trial on Monday. Jury selection begins.
The jurors tasked with deciding Penny's fate in his manslaughter trial will essentially put themselves in the former Marine's shoes and decide whether to convict him, former prosecutors told the Post. spoke.
A committee of 12 Manhattan residents will be asked to zoom in on the final moments of Neely's life in painstaking detail and imagine what they would do if they were in Penny's shoes, court observers said. said.
Here's what you need to know ahead of the highly anticipated trial.
What does the Manhattan prosecutor's office have to prove?
The former infantry squad leader has repeatedly said in the years leading up to his death that he did not intend to kill Neely, a homeless former Michael Jackson impersonator who had been battling mental illness.
But prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office do not need to prove that Penny had “intent” to kill in order to convict her of the charges she faces.
Instead, jurors will be asked whether they believe beyond a reasonable doubt that Penny “recklessly” caused Neely's death. If unanimously agreed, Penny could be convicted of second-degree manslaughter.
Penny also faces another charge with a lower burden of proof: criminally negligent homicide.
To convict Penny in this case, a jury would have to agree that Penny ignored what the law calls a “grave and unjustifiable risk of death” when he restrained Neely for several minutes.
What will the prosecution claim?
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office claimed that Penny knew he could have killed Neely during the encounter, even if he did not intend to do so.
They cited testimony from Marines who told the grand jury that they are taught that chokeholds, which are supposed to be “non-lethal” restraints, can sometimes be deadly.
Prosecutors also plan to present evidence that Penny put Neely in a chokehold for six minutes and continued to restrain him even after the homeless man stopped making any intentional movements.
“The idea that death is not a foreseeable outcome of strangling someone for six minutes is beyond the pale,” the prosecutor's office said in a November 2023 court filing.
Defense attorney Julie Rendelman said prosecutors will likely play the video of Neely's death in slow motion, saying that a reasonable person would have considered Neely a danger, but that Penny was shot for an extended period of time. He said he would claim he continued to strangle Neely.
“I think we literally have to dismantle the scene in seconds,” said Rendelman, who spent 20 years as a prosecutor.
Jason Goldman, a defense attorney and former Brooklyn prosecutor, said prosecutors have argued that Neely, who was presumably unarmed, “aggressively attacked” Penny while restraining him, even as he uttered “horrendous” abuse on the subway. The focus will be on the fact that he did not “assault anyone,” he said.
But Rendelman said prosecutors would be wrong to argue that Neely “posed no danger to anyone” before Penny intervened.
“Some jurors who have been on the train multiple times and have been threatened multiple times by different people may lose their case,” she said. “They need to approach this issue in a way that recognizes that but also recognizes that he went too far.”
What will the defense argue?
Penny's attorneys, Thomas Kenniff and Stephen Reiser, accused Neely of what they called threatening behavior toward straphangers, including ranting, “Someone's going to die today,” and Penny saying, “I'm going to Rikers.” He claimed that he was justified in strangling Penny because she yelled abusive language, saying, “I'm ready.” ”
“Penny's defense team will put the jury in the car and ask them what is the safest response in the face of Neely's turmoil,” Goldman said.
The defense will also likely try to poke holes in the city medical examiner's ruling that Penny's strangulation caused Neely's death.
Lawyers argued in an October 2023 motion that the medical examiner who testified before the grand jury failed to provide any concrete evidence that Neely died of asphyxia due to strangulation.
If the judge allows, they may address Neely's chronic abuse of the drug K2. Penny's lawyer said Neely's toxicology report confirmed that K2 was present in her system at the time of her death. However, the report does not say how much was present.
Motions by Penny's lawyers to have the case dismissed on these grounds have so far been denied.
But jurors could acquit Neely at trial if they find there is a reasonable doubt that strangling Penny caused Neely's death.
Who will testify?
Several straphangers who witnessed the fatal crash, police officers who arrived at the scene and the detective who interviewed Penny that night will take the stand, according to court documents.
Jurors will also hear from the city medical examiner's office and possibly psychological experts who will try to explain Penny's mental state during the episode.
One of the big questions looming over the trial is whether Penny will testify in person. He will have a chance to make that decision after prosecutors rest their case.
“I think I'll probably have to testify,” Rendleman told the Post.
“This is one of those cases where the jury might want to hear from Penny, because part of the justification would be what Penny was feeling when the incident happened. ” she said.
“What was going through his mind every step of the way?”
How much time will Penny spend in prison?
If the jury convicts him of manslaughter, Penny could face up to 15 years in prison, and if he is found guilty of lesser manslaughter, he could face up to four years in prison.
The DA's office did not say how harsh the sentence would be for Penny, who had no criminal record before his arrest.
If convicted, the final say on Penny's fate will rest with Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley, who is presiding over the case.
What complicates the case?
Goldman said juror selection will be especially important because Manhattan residents may have had at least one frightening experience on the subway.
“Jury selection is always an important part of any case, but in this case especially, multiply that by 10,” he told the Post.
“Apart from the four corners and legal standards of this case, there is no doubt that there will be great emotions involved,” he said.
Mr. Goldman represented Jordan Williams, a 20-year-old man who stabbed a man on the subway last summer after punching his girlfriend and attacking Mr. Williams himself. Williams' case was dropped after a Brooklyn grand jury declined to indict him on manslaughter charges.
Unlike the Williams case, there is no evidence that Neely placed his hands on any passengers on the train before Penny boarded.
“I think the key is to address the self-defense aspect, because I think in some ways they're struggling,” Rendelman said of prosecutors.
“After all, one of their arguments is that even if we initially assume Daniel Penny's claim that self-defense is true, there was a point in time when self-defense no longer existed.'' Dew.”
“For me, that's going to be one of the important things for jurors to understand so they don't lose their minds.”
