JD Vance, the vice-president-elect, confirmed that Daniel Penny, a Marine Corps veteran not too long ago acquitted of murder costs, will probably be his invited visitor on the Military-Navy soccer recreation on Saturday in Maryland.
Penny will watch the sport from a collection alongside president-elect Donald Trump and different figures in Trump’s subsequent administration, together with his defence secretary nominee, Pete Hegseth.
“I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s in a position to have enjoyable and admire how a lot his fellow residents admire his braveness,” Vance posted on X, confirming information first reported by the non-profit publication Notus.
The invitation follows Penny’s acquittal on Monday by a New York jury, which discovered him not responsible of criminally negligent murder within the 2023 loss of life of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with a historical past of arrests, psychological sickness and medical circumstances. Medical proof revealed that Neely had sickle cell trait, an inherited genetic situation that underneath excessive physiological stress can doubtlessly compromise blood oxygen transport, an element Penny’s defence crew argued may have contributed to his loss of life.
The case sparked nationwide controversy after Penny positioned Neely in a chokehold on a New York Metropolis subway practice in Might 2023. Witnesses reported that Neely had been shouting and appearing erratically, with one passenger, Juan Alberto Vazquez, telling NBC Information on the time that Neely was making aggressive statements about not caring about potential penalties.
It will likely be Penny’s first public look since his acquittal, and a high-profile occasion with deep ties to the navy at that.
Vance was vocal in his help of Penny, describing the prosecution as a “scandal” and praising the jury’s determination.
“Daniel’s an excellent man, and New York’s mob district lawyer tried to break his life for having a spine,” Vance posted on X.
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Penny, in a sit-down interview with Fox Information this week, maintained that he feared for his personal security and that of different passengers throughout the incident, describing himself as being in a “susceptible place”.
“The guilt I might have felt if somebody did get damage, if he did do what he was threatening to do, I might by no means be capable to dwell with myself,” Penny stated. “I’d take one million courtroom appearances and other people calling me names and other people hating me simply to maintain a kind of folks from getting damage or killed.”
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