A Manhattan prosecutor acknowledged on Friday that convicting former Marine Daniel Penny of “recklessly” choking mentally ill subway busker Jordan Neely to death on a crowded train may be a challenging task.
“This is not an easy case… of a bad man doing a bad thing,” Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran told a group of 16 prospective jurors who might be selected to determine Penny’s guilt in the caught-on-camera killing in May 2023.
Penny, 25, listened intently as Yoran explained that prosecutors would not argue that he intended to kill Neely, 30, when he placed him in a chokehold for over six minutes on a northbound F train approaching the Broadway-Lafayette station.
“It’s not easy to find someone guilty of killing somebody when you know they didn’t mean it,” Yoran said during the fifth day of jury selection in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Yoran also questioned the group if they could make decisions on the legal issues in the case even after hearing positive aspects about Penny, such as his service in the US Marines for four years.
“You’re not here to judge the defendant as a person… You are here to figure out what happened and did he commit this crime,” she emphasized.
The prosecutor highlighted that the tragic incident began after Neely, who suffered from mental illness and “self-medicated” with the synthetic marijuana drug K2, behaved erratically and menacingly towards other passengers before Penny restrained him.
“So he’s the one who really set into motion,” Yoran explained about Neely. “It could be tempting to think he brought this upon himself and he’s responsible for his own death.”
But “under the law, all life is the same,” the prosecutor stated.
After being questioned by Justice Maxwell Wiley and the DA’s Office, more than a half dozen potential jurors admitted they have felt “personally threatened” while riding city subways.
One prospective juror, an older white man residing in Battery Park City, shared his experience of “aggressive panhandling” in the 1980s.
Another potential panelist, a young black man who relocated from Atlanta to New York three years ago, was asked if he could find Penny “reckless and unjustified” in his actions if the evidence supports it.
He seemed uncertain in his response.
“It’s two people, but it’s one that you don’t really know in the moment what the person is going to do,” he replied.
No jurors have been selected yet to serve on the anticipated six-week trial.
The process will resume on Monday, with Penny’s attorneys having the opportunity to question potential jurors.
If convicted of manslaughter, Penny could potentially face up to 15 years in prison.
