Daniel Penny, the previous Marine who positioned Jordan Neely in a chokehold on a subway practice final 12 months, was discovered not responsible of his dying after the jury had deadlocked on a manslaughter cost.
On Monday (Dec. 9), Daniel Penny, who choked fellow subway passenger Jordan Neely on an uptown-bound F practice final 12 months, was acquitted on the cost of criminally negligent murder. The choice got here after the jury had beforehand been deadlocked on a cost of manslaughter, which the presiding decide dismissed final Friday (Dec. 6). The decision implies that the previous Marine is a free man.
Neely, a 30-year-old unhoused man, boarded the F practice final Might shouting loudly and behaving randomly. Penny, 24, managed to get behind Neely and positioned him in a chokehold to subdue him, with different passengers aiding. Video footage confirmed Neely, who’s Black, struggling to get out of Penny’s maintain for a number of minutes. Neely can be rushed to the hospital after police arrived, the place he died as a consequence of compression of the neck, which was confirmed by the medical expert. Penny can be charged the following month.
The case would grow to be a fiercely debated flashpoint domestically in New York Metropolis and nationwide, with conservatives and right-wingers rallying round Penny, who’s white. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis known as him a “Good Samaritan.” Observers in contrast it to the incident 40 years in the past the place Bernard Goetz, who was white, shot 4 Black youngsters on the subway claiming he was a goal for being mugged by them.
“Jordan Neely was failed by the town’s social service system for years. He was failed by our metropolis when Daniel Penny put him in a chokehold on the subway. And right now, Jordan was failed as soon as once more, this time by the town’s justice system, following the jury’s determination to acquit Penny of criminally negligent murder,” wrote Metropolis Council members Sandy Nurse, Shahana Hanif, Jennifer Gutiérrez, Carmen de La Rosa, Kevin C. Riley and Crystal Hudson in a joint assertion condemning the choice. As Penny was ushered away from the courthouse by his attorneys, Neely’s father, Mr. Zachery, spoke to reporters in regards to the determination whereas surrounded by supporters, together with the Reverend Al Sharpton. “I simply wish to say I miss my son,” he stated after fighting emotion for a number of minutes, including: “It hurts. It actually, actually hurts.”
