The Manhattan jury weighing the prison fees towards Daniel Penny within the subway chokehold dying of Jordan Neely began deliberations within the lightning-rod case Tuesday.
The 12 jurors — seven girls and 5 males — went off to huddle round 1:15 p.m. and are tasked with deciding whether or not to convict Penny of killing Neely, a troubled homeless man, on a crowded F practice subway practice in Could 2023.
Over 4 weeks of testimony, the panel heard from greater than 40 witnesses, together with straphangers who witnessed Neely’s outburst on the crowded F practice that day and Penny — a Marine veteran from Lengthy Island — placing him in a chokehold and its aftermath.
Penny, 26, nodded within the course of the jurors as they have been led away in Manhattan Supreme Courtroom to deliberate.
He has pleaded not responsible.
Right here’s what’s at stake:
What fees is Daniel Penny dealing with?
Penny is charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent murder.
- Manslaughter within the second diploma is when an individual “recklessly” causes the dying of one other particular person with conduct that “creates or contributes to a considerable and unjustifiable threat” that their dying will happen. The cost, a category C felony, additionally states that an individual is “conscious of and consciously disregards” the danger of their actions.
- Criminally negligent murder, a category E felony, is when an individual acts with “prison negligence” by failing to understand the danger of their actions however going by with it anyway.
How can Daniel Penny be discovered responsible?
If Penny is discovered responsible of manslaughter, the jury may have discovered that he “recklessly” prompted the dying of Neely.
If the jury finds Penny not responsible of manslaughter, it should then think about whether or not he’s responsible of criminally negligent murder.
Penny can’t be convicted on each counts.
How lengthy may Daniel Penny spend in jail if he’s discovered responsible?
Penny faces a most sentence of 15 years in jail if convicted of manslaughter within the second diploma.
If the jury finds Penny not responsible of manslaughter however convicts him of criminally negligent murder, he faces as much as 4 years behind bars.
There’s no minimal on both cost, that means that he may be sentenced to probation.
How can Daniel Penny be discovered not responsible?
Penny may duck each fees if the jury votes that he’s not responsible of manslaughter and if it finds that his actions have been “justified.”
The jury must resolve that if Penny used lethal bodily power, it was needed for him to take action to defend himself and others on the subway, and whether or not a “affordable particular person” in Penny’s footwear would have had the identical response.
It may additionally vote to acquit if it finds that prosecutors haven’t confirmed past an inexpensive doubt that Penny’s chokehold is what prompted Neely’s dying.
What are prosecutors claiming?
Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg’s workplace claims Penny was “criminally reckless” and went “means too far” whereas holding Neely, 30, down for practically six minutes — regardless of figuring out his actions might be deadly — as a result of he didn’t “acknowledge [Neely’s] humanity.”
“What’s so tragic about this case is that regardless that the defendant began out attempting to do the fitting factor, because the chokehold progressed, the defendant knew that Jordan Neely was in nice misery and dying, and he needlessly continued,” prosecutor Dafna Yoran advised jurors in her closing assertion Tuesday.
“The defendant was given all of the indicators that he wanted to cease,” she added. “He ignored them and stored going till a person died. He have to be held accountable for that.”
What’s Daniel Penny’s protection?
Penny’s attorneys have argued that Penny’s actions have been “absolutely justified” to guard individuals on the subway from Neely, who witnesses mentioned was menacing passengers and making threats earlier than Penny took him down.
“Who would you like on the following practice experience with you?” his lawyer Steven Raiser mentioned in his closing assertion.
“The man with the earbuds minding his personal enterprise who you realize can be there for you if one thing occurred? Or maybe you simply hope that somebody like Jordan Neely doesn’t enter that practice when you find yourself on their lonesome, on their lonesome in a crowd of others frozen with concern?” the lawyer added.
What proof was offered at trial?
Two movies shot by witnesses — one by a highschool scholar and one other from a contract journalist — are the one direct views of the chokehold on the coronary heart of the case.
Jurors have been proven the notorious six-minute video shot by journalist Juan Alberto Vasquez, of Penny holding Neely in a chokehold for a number of minutes — together with after Neely seems to cease shifting on his personal. The stunning video has been performed greater than a dozen occasions contained in the courtroom.
A quick, never-before-seen video shot by a nervous Ivette Rosario additionally reveals Penny holding Neely in a chokehold — whereas bystanders plead with him to “let him go.”
Rosario testified that after Neely stormed onto the uptown F practice on the Second Avenue cease, he shouted that he was homeless, hungry and “didn’t care about going again to jail.”
Different straphangers mentioned they’d by no means seen an outburst like Neely’s on the subway earlier than.
Alethea Gittings testified she was “scared s–tless” listening to Neely’s rants and later thanked Penny for stepping in.
Lori Sitro, who was taking her 5-year-old son to a health care provider’s appointment on the subway, testified that she was so petrified of a “belligerent and unhinged” Neely that she barricaded her son behind his stroller.
“I’ve taken the subway for 30 years and I’ve seen rather a lot. I’ve seen lots of unstable individuals. This felt completely different to me,” Sitro mentioned.
Testimony at trial has additionally included dueling medical opinions from town’s health worker and Penny’s medical professional.
Dr. Cynthia Harris, who carried out Neely’s post-mortem, stood by her ruling that Neely’s dying was attributable to asphyxiation on account of the previous Marine’s chokehold.
Harris testified that she and the opposite medical doctors on the Workplace of the Chief Medical Examiner, together with the chief, believed that Neely’s dying was attributable to “asphyxia,” according to being choked, after seeing a journalist’s video of the homeless man “dying” with Penny’s arms wrapped round his neck.
In the meantime, Dr. Satish Chundru, a forensic pathologist based mostly in Texas, claimed that Neely’s post-mortem outcomes didn’t present indicators typical of recognized chokehold deaths — however mentioned that Neely died from “the mixed results of sickle cell disaster, the schizophrenia, the battle and restraint, and the artificial marijuana.”
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