Jurors in the trial of a military veteran accused of applying a lethal chokehold to restrain a man whose actions were frightening other passengers on a New York subway train started deliberating Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.
An anonymous jury is considering charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in connection with the death of homeless and unstable street performer Jordan Neely. Daniel Penny, the veteran, entered a not guilty plea.
According to Penny, 26, he was merely attempting to restrain Neely and hold him for the police, not to harm him, in order to safeguard other subway passengers. The Marine veteran held Neely by the neck for almost six minutes, according to the prosecution, using excessive force for an extended period of time.
After a month of testimony in the widely followed case, the discussions begin. It has sparked discussions about public safety, how society handles mental illness and homelessness, where to draw the line between aggression and self-defense, and how race plays a part in all of this.
After his mother was strangled while he was a teenager, Neely, 30, who was Black, battled melancholy, schizophrenia, and substance abuse. He occasionally amused onlookers with Michael Jackson impersonations. Penny, a white college student studying architecture, was a Marine for four years.
According to witnesses, on May 1, 2023, Neely boarded a train beneath Manhattan, began acting strangely, shouting about his hunger and thirst, and declaring that he was ready to die, go to jail, or, as Penny and a few other passengers remembered, to kill.
Penny approached Neely from behind, seized his head and neck, and dragged him to the ground. Later, the veteran admitted to police that he had put Neely out and choked him to make sure he wouldn’t harm anyone.
Neely was killed by having his neck crushed in a chokehold, according to the city medical examiners’ ruling. That conclusion was refuted by a pathologist that Penny’s defense team engaged, who blamed the death on a number of other causes.
In attempt to subdue Neely without knocking him out, Penny’s attorneys contended that he employed what they call a civilian restraint, deviating from the chokehold technique he had been trained in. Neely, according to the prosecution, had the training to understand that his actions may be fatal.
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