Six Manhattanites had been picked Monday to serve on the jury at Daniel Penny’s lightning-rod manslaughter trial over the deadly subway chokehold of homeless man Jordan Neely — together with two who mentioned they’ve skilled harassment on the transit system.
The panelists chosen to this point embody a Yorkville insurance coverage legal professional who recalled being randomly “rammed” by a lady with a cart throughout her morning commute eight years in the past.
“She simply rammed the cart into me, known as me a reputation and I simply backed off,” the lady mentioned throughout jury choice in Manhattan Supreme Court docket. “It sort of ended there.”
One other juror, an Higher East Aspect retiree, mentioned {that a} “homeless gentleman” as soon as harassed him for “no specific cause” whereas he was on the Q practice at 96th Road.
A 3rd juror is a retired public librarian dwelling in Morningside Heights who mentioned her daughter was assaulted by a mentally ailing or homeless man in the course of Instances Sq. about seven years in the past.
“This man walked up behind her… and he punched her behind the top,” she mentioned.
Different jurors embody a theater buff who lives in Lincoln Middle, a healthcare professional who emigrated to the US from the Philippines and a software program engineer from Atlanta.
Three out of the six jurors chosen within the case to this point mentioned they experience the subway often, whereas the opposite three say they take it every so often.
A panel of 12 jurors complete and 4 alternates will finally be chosen to resolve whether or not Penny, a 25-year-old former Marine, is responsible of “recklessly” killing Neely, 30, who had a historical past of psychological well being issues.
Penny is accused of putting the homeless subway busker in a six-minute chokehold after Neely, who was unarmed, verbally threatened passengers inside a crowded northbound F practice because it approached the Broadway-Lafayette station on Might 1, 2023.
Prosecutors will argue that 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 had been justified to guard himself and different straphangers, and have cited Neely’s continual abuse of the drug K2, which they are saying made him susceptible to violent outbursts.
Not less than one of many jurors, a younger black man who moved to the East Village from Atlanta, mentioned throughout juror questioning final week that he’s conversant in the results of the harmful artificial marijuana product.
“Not that he deserved it, however I feel simply the affect of medication… you don’t actually know what an individual goes to do on K2,” he mused to Assistant District Legal professional Dafna Yoran on Friday.
“It’s two individuals, nevertheless it’s one that you simply don’t actually know within the second what the individual goes to do,” he added.
Considered one of Penny’s attorneys, Thomas Kenniff, polled the group of potential jurors about whether or not they agreed that subway crime was on the rise, whether or not they agreed with Gov. Kathy Hochul’s deployment of 1,000 Nationwide Guard troops on the subway and whether or not they agreed that homelessness was a major downside on the subway.
Greater than a dozen potential jurors had been axed from the case for varied causes Monday. Among the many panelists bounced from the case “for trigger” was one girl who mentioned she is likely to be sympathetic to Penny as a result of her father and brother served within the US Military.
The girl added that she couldn’t be “neutral” in deciding whether or not to convict Penny as a result of she’s been harassed as a straphanger — and feels that “individuals ought to step in once they see a lady getting harassed.”
“I’ve been stepped on, sat on, grinded up in opposition to, pushed – it’s all simply a part of taking the subway,” the lady mentioned.
Jury choice within the case is about to proceed Tuesday morning.
Penny faces as much as 15 years in jail if he’s convicted of second-degree manslaughter, and as much as 4 years if he’s convicted on the lesser cost of criminally negligent murder.
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