NEW YORK (AP) — Marine veteran Daniel Penny didn’t intend to kill a distressed man on a New York subway, but Penny “went way too far” in trying to neutralize someone he saw as a threat and not as a person, a prosecutor told jurors Friday.
“The manner in which the defendant permanently silenced Jordan Neely evinced the defendant’s belief that Mr. Neely didn’t deserve even the minimum modicum of humanity,” prosecutor Dafna Yoran said in an opening statement at Penny’s manslaughter trial.
Penny’s “indifference toward Mr. Neely, the man whose life he was literally holding in his hands, caused him to disregard the most basic precautions and needlessly kill him, long after any threat he posed had dissipated,” she added.
Defense lawyers were due to give their opening later Friday.
An anonymous Manhattan jury is deciding the manslaughter case surrounding Neely’s 2023 death, which prosecutors call a reckless killing but Penny claims was self-defense. The case has rattled fault lines surrounding race, homelessness, perceptions of public safety and bystanders’ responsibility.
Penny’s critics see him as a white vigilante killer of a Black man who was behaving erratically and making dire statements but wasn’t armed and hadn’t assaulted or even touched anyone in the subway car. Supporters credit the 25-year-old Penny with taking action to protect frightened subway riders — action that he has said was meant to defuse, not kill.
Penny’s lawyer Steven Raiser has said that a conviction “will have a chilling effect on every New Yorker’s right and duty to stand up for each other.”
Both supporters and critics of Penny have held demonstrations; Penny arrived at the courthouse Friday to critical chants from a small group of protesters. The case has been absorbed into the United States’ fractious politics, with Republican officials speaking up for Penny while Democratic ones attended Neely’s funeral.
Yoran told jurors the case isn’t “a referendum on on our society’s failure to deal with mental illness and homelessness on the subway,” nor on police response, on whether Penny had a right to intervene before officers arrived or even on whether his initial decision to use a chokehold was appropriate.
Rather, she said, “He used far too much force for far too long. He went way too far.”
Jurors, who were quizzed earlier about their subway experiences, are expected to hear some witness testimony Friday after opening statements. It’s not clear who prosecutors’ first witness will be.
Neely’s life was tattered by mental illness and drug use after his mother was murdered and stuffed in a suitcase when he was a teen, his family has said. By 30, he sometimes entertained subway riders as a Michael Jackson impersonator, but he also had a criminal record that included assaulting a woman at a subway station.
Penny, an architecture student who served four years in the Marines, has said he was going from a college class to a gym when he encountered Neely on a subway May 1, 2023.
Neely was begging for money, shouting about being willing to die or go to jail, and making sudden movements, according to witnesses. Yoran said Neely talked about hurting people.
Penny put his arm around the man’s neck, took him to the floor and held Neely there, with Penny’s legs around him.
With a bystander recording some of the encounter on video, Penny held Neely for about six minutes, Yoran said. The hold continued as the train stopped at a station, all but two fellow riders got off, those two helped restrain Neely, and another warned Penny, “If you don’t let him go now, you’re going to kill him,” according to her statement and court papers.
Penny ultimately released Neely nearly a minute after his body went limp, prosecutors said. He waited for police, but Yoran noted that although Penny was trained in first aid, he didn’t check Neely’s breathing or pulse or try to revive him.
“I put him out,” Penny told police. He later added that he had simply wanted to “de-escalate” the edgy situation and wasn’t trying to injure Neely but rather “to keep him from hurting anyone else.”
City medical examiners determined that Neely died from compression of the neck. Penny’s lawyers have indicated they plan to question that finding.
They have sought unsuccessfully to keep jurors from hearing some evidence, including Neely’s lack of a weapon and Penny’s station-house statement to detectives.
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Associated Press journalist David R. Martin contributed.
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