A jury was seated Wednesday in former Marine Daniel Penny’s subway chokehold trial — with nearly all of jurors saying they’ve had first-hand expertise with somebody performing erratically on the rails.
The seven girls and 5 males at the moment are tasked with deciding whether or not to convict Penny, 25, of killing Jordan Neely, a homeless man who some witnesses mentioned was “insanely threatening,” on a crowded subway prepare in Might 2023.
He faces as much as 15 years in jail.
They embody three straphangers who say they’ve been harassed on the transit system — and 9 New Yorkers who raised their fingers when a choose requested them in the event that they’ve seen somebody have an “outburst” on the subway.
One lady, who lives in Greenwich Village and was chosen Wednesday, mentioned a person as soon as yelled and swore at her and her buddy on a subway automotive.
Additionally chosen have been an Higher West Facet paralegal whose father served within the Israeli army and who rides the subway 5 days every week, a Murray Hill company lawyer, and an Higher West Facet retiree who moved to the town from Nebraska.
The 12 panelists, plus 4 alternates, have been chosen after a two-week course of that ended with some fiery moments in court docket Wednesday within the already extremely charged case — comparable to when a Manhattan prosecutor accused Penny’s legal professionals of illegally aiming to oust potential jurors of colour from the case.
Assistant District Legal professional Dafna Yoran ripped Penny’s legal professionals, Steven Raiser and Thomas Kenniff, for utilizing eight of their 9 no-questions-asked juror challenges on “individuals of colour.”
Kenniff shot again that the suggestion that their juror strikes have been racially motivated was “outrageous” and identified that one of many jurors chosen for the case is a “male black juror.”
Justice Maxwell Wiley in the end allowed the strikes to face after asking Kenniff to offer different rationales for why the jurors have been stricken from the case.
Yoran introduced up the problem once more, additionally unsuccessfully, after Kenniff and Raiser used one other strike on a potential juror of colour Wednesday afternoon.
“When you have a look at the whole thing of their conduct, race is enjoying an enormous a part of it,” she argued.
At the very least 4 individuals of colour are on the jury.
Raiser and Kenniff have labored all through the jury choice course of with movie star jury marketing consultant Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, who has helped high-profile shoppers like Kyle Rittenhouse decide juries in recent times, and labored with OJ Simpson on his homicide trial.
The DA’s workplace didn’t have its personal jury marketing consultant, and as an alternative was counting on analysis from its paralegals earlier than making its jury choice selections, Yoran mentioned.
The problem of race has hung over the case from the beginning.
Penny, who’s white, is accused of inserting homeless 30-year-old subway busker Neely, who was black, in a six-minute chokehold on a crowded F prepare on Might 1, 2023.
Neely, who was unarmed, was verbally threatening passengers contained in the northbound prepare because it approached the Broadway-Lafayette station.
Prosecutors say Penny acted recklessly and ignored an “unjustifiable threat” by persevering with to choke Neely even after the subway doorways opened onto the platform — permitting some frightened passengers to flee — and for a minute after he misplaced consciousness.
Penny’s legal professionals have argued that his actions have been justified to guard himself and different straphangers, and have cited Neely’s persistent abuse of the drug K2, which they are saying made him vulnerable to violent outbursts.
Penny insisted in an interview with The Publish after his arrest that the chokehold killing “had nothing to do with race.”
“I choose an individual primarily based on their character,” he mentioned within the Might 2023 interview.
“I’m not a white supremacist.”
“All people who’s ever met me can inform you, I really like all individuals, I really like all cultures,” he added.
“You possibly can inform by my previous and all my travels and adventures around the globe. I used to be really planning a highway journey via Africa earlier than this occurred.”
Opening statements within the case are set for Friday morning.
Supply hyperlink
