Legal experts told ABC News that Daniel Penny’s trial capitalized on societal concerns about homelessness, serious mental illness, safety and race in the wake of Penny’s death on the NYC subway. Jordan Neely.
“Daniel Penny bought himself a great defense team by raising millions of dollars online, and it’s no big mystery how he got so much support,” said trial attorney and civil rights attorney Adanté Pointer. “People are sick of the way we are. Society doesn’t deal with mental illness and puts that duty on an ordinary citizen, which is what Penny was when she met Neely on that subway car. It’s a social problem that Penny had to deal with, without the resources of society.”
Penny, a 25-year-old ex-Marine, strangled Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man, for a minute after he yelled and behaved erratically on a city F train in May 2023, according to officials. The city medical examiner ruled that suffocation was Neely’s cause of death.
The prosecution argued that Penny’s initial intentions were “laudable” but that he held out too long: “Daniel Penny, the defendant, could have easily held Jordan Neely to death without choking her,” said prosecutor Dafna Yoran. in his closing argument.
About 30 seconds after Penny put Neely in the chokehold, the train pulled into the next stop and many passengers left the train car, according to court filings. Yoran called Neely’s death “so tragically unnecessary,” and questioned the defense’s assertion that Neely posed a threat to passengers even after being subdued on the subway floor for several minutes.
Daniel Penny poses for a photo at a bar with his attorneys, Steven Raiser, left, and Thomas Kenniff, after being acquitted of manslaughter on Dec. 9, 2024, in New York.
Jennifer Peltz/AP
Penny pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and criminal negligence. The manslaughter charge was dropped after the jury said it could not reach a unanimous decision. He was found not guilty of the murder charge.
Anna G. Cominsky, a law professor and managing attorney at New York Law School Legal Services, Inc., said the trial raises a question for the city about how to respond to the concerns raised in the trial.
“Absolution is a small part of this,” Cominsky said. “We really want to think: Could this death have been prevented? And part of the answer to that is that it very well could be, because we need to think about the services we provide to our homeless population. We need to think about the services we provide to people with serious mental health issues, and those are the things that have finally led to this tragedy.”
Bennett Gershman, a professor at Pace University School of Law and noted legal expert, said the subway acted as a “silent witness” in the case, capitalizing on the tension surrounding crime on public transportation.
New York police officers respond to the scene of an altercation on a subway train, Monday, May 1, 2023, in New York. A man suffering from an apparent mental health episode on a New York City subway died Monday after a rider put him in a headlock, according to police officials and video of the encounter.
Paul Martinka via AP
“It was almost impossible to win this, a group of New Yorkers from New York sat on a jury, knowing what it’s like in the subway system, knowing that there are people who can cause problems on the subways,” Gershman said. . “In this case, there was an individual who interfered with what could have been harm to other people, stopped what he thought was going to happen. And to some people, he’s a hero. To a lot of people, he’s a villain. But, you know, we’re dealing with the criminal justice system. No we are moral.”
Penny has garnered nationwide support since the incident, as fundraising for her legal defense continues to grow with the acquittal netting more than $3.2 million in donations since Neely’s death.
Pointer noted that the trial also had racial implications for some prowtesters, arguing that bias may have played a factor in perceiving Neely as a threat, raising questions about implicit bias.
“In our society, black people are portrayed as a threat that tarnishes our collective perception of reality and leads to judgments where the use of deadly force is deemed justified when objective evidence shows that no one was warranted,” Pointer said. society has become very comfortable with the idea that a Black life can be taken without good justification.”
Jordan Neely poses as Michael Jackson near the theater for the Michael Jackson movie “This is IT” in New York on October 27, 2009.
Andrew Savulich/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images
The law firm that represented Penny released a statement after his acquittal this evening, saying, “We couldn’t be happier that a jury of equals acquitted Danny of any wrongdoing. And now New Yorkers can take some comfort in knowing they can continue to stand up for each other that we can without giving up our rights or freedom”.
Protests during the trial
Hawk Newsom, founder of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, who has regularly protested during the Penny trial, criticized the verdict in a call to ABC News. He said he will seek justice by giving back to those in his community who need help.
“If our people are hungry, we have to feed them. If we have problems with the schools in our communities, we have to create new schools,” said Newsom. “The Neely family’s call is to bring forth actions of unity in the Black community.”
A courtroom sketch of defendant and former U.S. Marine Daniel Penny reacts with his attorney after pleading not guilty to the criminal death of Jordan Neely on December 9, 2024, on a subway train in New York City.
Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
The local activist group VOCAL-NY criticized state and local officials, arguing that violence against the homeless is an issue. more likely to be the victim of violence than the perpetrator — remains unexplained. The group is following the ruling by calling for increased services and care for people like Neely who are homeless or suffer from serious mental illness.
“The conditions that led to Jordan Neely’s death are the same as they were today, if not worse,” the group said in a statement to ABC News. “This trial or judicial process will not change. There are solutions, even if the political will to put them into effect is failing at both the state and city levels.”
