Daniel Penny’s defense centers on disputing Jordan Neely’s cause of death on NYC subway

The defense has rested its case in the trial of Daniel Penny, the former Marine who held Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold on the New York City subway last year, after four days of witness testimony.

The defense has rested its case in the trial of Daniel Penny, the former Marine who held Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold on the New York City subway last year, after four days of witness testimony. Neely’s cause of death became the focal point of the defense’s case in Penny’s manslaughter trial, with a forensic pathologist challenging the prosecution’s argument that Neely died from the former Marine’s chokehold. The homeless New Yorker died in May 2023 after an encounter with 26-year-old Penny on the New York City subway. The case has polarized city residents, while raising the broader question of when it’s appropriate for a citizen to kill another citizen. Penny placed 30-year-old Neely in a chokehold after he began shouting at train passengers that he was hungry and thirsty and didn’t care whether he died. Penny, who is White, forced Neely, who is Black, to the train floor and restrained him in what prosecutors say became a deadly chokehold. A medical examiner ruled Neely’s death a homicide. Prosecutors are not trying to prove that Penny intentionally tried to kill Neely. Instead, they allege he went “way too far” by holding Neely’s neck for about six minutes, violating “law and human decency.” Penny told NYPD detectives he put a man in a chokehold to try to restrain him until police arrived and did not mean to hurt or kill him, according to a video played in court.