Manhattan DA admits it won’t be ‘easy’ to convict Daniel Penny of fatal NYC subway chokehold

A Manhattan prosecutor admitted Friday that it could be exhausting for jurors to convict former Marine Daniel Penny of “recklessly” choking mentally in poor health subway busker Jordan Neely to loss of life on a crowded prepare.

“This isn’t a simple case… of a nasty man doing a nasty factor,” Assistant District Legal professional Dafna Yoran informed a gaggle of 16 potential jurors who could also be chosen to determine if Penny is responsible of manslaughter and criminally negligent murder within the Could 2023 caught-on-camera killing.

Penny, 25, craned his neck and stared on the potential panelists as Yoran defined that prosecutors received’t argue that he meant to kill Neely, 30, when he positioned him in a chokehold for greater than six minutes on a northbound F prepare because it approached the Broadway-Lafayette station.

“It’s not simple discovering somebody responsible of killing anyone when you realize they didn’t imply it,” Yoran stated in the course of the fifth day of jury choice in Manhattan Supreme Courtroom.

Yoran additionally requested the group if they might determine on the authorized points within the case even after listening to “good issues” about Penny, together with that he served within the US Marines for 4 years.

“You’re not right here to evaluate the defendant as an individual … You might be right here to determine what occurred and did he commit this crime,” she stated.

The prosecutor famous that the tragic episode began after the unarmed Neely, who suffered from psychological sickness and “self medicated” with the artificial marijuana drug K2, was “performing erratically and menacingly” towards straphangers earlier than Penny restrained him.

“So he’s the one who actually set into movement,” Yoran stated, of Neely. “It could possibly be tempting to assume he introduced this upon himself and he’s answerable for his personal loss of life.”

However “underneath the legislation, all life is identical,” the prosecutor stated.

After being questioned by Justice Maxwell Wiley and the DA’s Workplace, greater than a half dozen of the potential jurors additionally stated that they’ve felt “personally threatened” whereas driving metropolis subways.

One potential juror, an older white man who lives in Battery Park Metropolis, stated he skilled “aggressive panhandling” within the Nineteen Eighties.

One other potential panelist, a youthful black man who moved to the New York from Atlanta three years in the past, was later requested whether or not he may, if the proof helps it, discover that Penny was “reckless and unjustified” in his actions.

He appeared unsure in his reply.

“It’s two folks, but it surely’s one that you just don’t actually know within the second what the particular person goes to do,” he responded.

No jurors have been chosen but to serve on what’s anticipated to be a six-week trial.

The method will proceed on Monday, with Penny’s attorneys getting their likelihood to query potential jurors.

Penny faces as much as 15 years in jail if convicted of the manslaughter cost.