Daniel Penny “acted to avoid wasting” subway riders from a “determined” Jordan Neely, his lawyer argued Monday — asking jurors within the lightning-rod Manhattan trial: “Who would you need on the subsequent practice with you?”
“Danny acted when others didn’t,” protection lawyer Steven Raiser stated throughout his closing assertion in Manhattan Supreme Court docket.
“He put his life on the road. He did that for good strangers,” he stated of Penny, 26, who’s is charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent murder over the deadly Could 2023 encounter.
Raiser invited jurors to think about how they’d have felt had they been on the F practice automobile the place Neely — a 30-year-old homeless man with a historical past of psychological sickness and drug abuse — threatened straphangers earlier than Penny put him in a chokehold.
“Who would you need on the subsequent practice trip with you?” Raiser requested, close to the top of his hours-long lengthy summation.
“The man on the practice with the earbuds minding his personal enterprise, who you realize can be there for you if one thing occurs?” the lawyer continued. “Or, you simply hope somebody like Neely by no means enters, particularly once you’re on their own.”
However Assistant District Legal professional Dafna Yoran countered that the Marine veteran went “approach” too far by holding the unarmed, mentally ailing homeless man in a deadly chokehold for six minutes — lengthy after he may fairly have been thought-about a lethal risk.
“We’re right here right this moment as a result of the defendant used approach an excessive amount of drive for approach too lengthy to approach too reckless of a fashion,” Yoran stated.
“We as a society can’t tolerate the unjustifiable demise of a fellow citizen,” she added.
The prosecutor advised jurors that “nobody needed to die” in the course of the Could 1, 2023 encounter on the uptown F practice because it approached the Broadway-Lafayette station.
Penny was justified in his preliminary takedown of Neely, who was menacing bystanders in what a witness referred to as an “unhinged” rant, the prosecutor conceded.
However Penny’s actions turned prison when he stored holding Neely’s neck even after almost the entire terrified straphangers had left the practice automobile, and for 51 seconds after Neely handed out, she argued.
“There may be no conceivable justification underneath the legislation, and human decency, to carry an unconscious man in a chokehold,” Yoran stated, whereas displaying for jurors a nonetheless body of a bystander of Neely
“Was the defendant justified in utilizing lethal bodily drive on Mr. Neely? Completely not,” she added.
Penny, of Lengthy Island, sat on the protection desk in a brown go well with and maroon tie in the course of the closing statements. He appeared straight forward, within the course of the choose, with out showing to make eye contact with jurors.
His lawyer argued Monday morning that Penny “moved to guard” his fellow practice riders as a result of appearing to avoid wasting others is what he discovered whereas within the US Marines.
“He had one thing the others didn’t, one thing distinctive to him. His coaching,” Raiser advised the jury. “Danny acted to avoid wasting these individuals.”
Yoran countered that Penny ought to have identified from his Marine coaching that there have been many different methods to restrain Neely aside from holding him in what turned out to be a deadly chokehold.
Penny “may have simply restrained Jordan Neely with out choking him to demise,” she advised jurors.
Penny’s lawyer, earlier within the day, tried to sow doubt within the metropolis medical expert’s discovering that the chokehold is what prompted Neely’s demise.
The lawyer additionally sought to spotlight what he referred to as Penny’s “softer facet,” noting that he’s an avid surfer and had been learning structure on the time of the confrontation.
“Danny is not only a former Marine,” Raiser advised jurors.
Raiser additionally used the time period “civilian restraint,” moderately than a chokehold, to explain Penny’s actions.
“He holds him till police arrives. By no means to render him unconscious and by no means to attempt to harm him,” the lawyer stated.
Penny was greeted with shouts of “Responsible!” on his approach into Manhattan Supreme Court docket Monday morning.
A bunch of a dozen protesters chanted, “Responsible! Responsible! Responsible!” he exited a black SUV outdoors the 100 Centre St. courthouse.
“What do we would like? Justice! When do we would like it? Now!” the demonstrators shouted.
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