Jurors Set to Weigh Penny’s Fate in Choking Case That Divided New York
The New York Times
Prosecutors in Daniel Penny’s manslaughter trial are to finish closing arguments Tuesday. The trial has touched on fears about crime and the city’s failure to help its most troubled residents.
After seven weeks and over 40 witnesses, a Manhattan jury is set to settle a debate that for more than a year has divided New Yorkers: whether Daniel Penny, an ex-Marine who fatally choked a homeless man in a subway car last year, is guilty of manslaughter.
On Tuesday, prosecutors will finish their closing arguments in the crowded and stuffy Manhattan courtroom where the drama has played out; the defense lawyers made their final appeal on Monday, trying to persuade the jury that their client should not be punished for the death of the man, Jordan Neely.
One of Mr. Penny’s lawyers tried to leave the jury with the image of his client as a protector. “The government is scapegoating the one man who was willing to stand up at the moment he was needed,” said the lawyer, Steven Raiser.
Dafna Yoran, an assistant district attorney, said in a summation that will continue Tuesday that what Mr. Penny did on May 1, 2023, was no accident. He was “all too aware of what the consequences could be,” she said.
“He was trained in this,” Ms. Yoran said, referring to the chokehold, “and yet he continued with the foreseeable and tragic results.”
The case has engrossed New Yorkers since video of Mr. Penny with his arms wrapped around the neck of Mr. Neely, a 30-year-old man with a history of mental health struggles, exploded online. The video went on for several minutes as Mr. Neely, in what would be the last moments of his life, tried desperately to stay alive: He clawed at Mr. Penny’s arm, tapped on the knee of a bystander, and, when that didn’t work, stretched his arms out to an empty subway bench.
