Daniel Penny found not guilty in NY subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely
www.bbc.com
The case sparked weeks of protests and reignited national debate over race, mental illness, and public safety in the US.

Jurors deliberated for five days before declaring Daniel Penny not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in the death of 30-year-old Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train on 1 May 2023.

The verdict comes after prosecutors agreed to drop a more serious charge of second-degree manslaughter on Friday, as jurors could not reach an agreement.

The move allowed the jurors to move on to consider the second lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.

"We couldn't be more pleased that a jury of Danny's peers acquitted him of any wrongdoing," his lawyers said in a statement afterwards.

"New Yorkers can take some comfort in knowing that we can continue to stand up for one another without sacrificing our rights or our freedoms."

Mind you, the murderer got three million dollars in donations for his defence.

  • multitotal@lemmygrad.ml
    ·
    8 days ago

    Literal murder, and for what?

    One woman on the train said that Mr Neely made lunging movements that scared her enough to shield her young child from him.

    lmao. The murderer was just looking for an excuse to hurt someone.

    Prosecutors said Mr Penny placed Mr Neely in a chokehold for six minutes, compressing his neck even after he stopped moving.

    They argued that Mr Penny had acted "recklessly" by restraining Mr Neely for several minutes even after he lost consciousness.

    "He's dying," said an unseen bystander in one passenger's video. "Let him go!"

    A medical examiner ruled Mr Neely's cause of death as compression to the neck.

    I wonder what the demographics and socio-economic status of the jurors was.

    • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      8 days ago

      7 women 5 men

      4 black people, 1 Phillipino immigrant.

      One of the white individuals is a Ukrainian immigrant who traveled to the US in the 1970s.

      The socio economic status is hard to determine. The majority of the jury are lawyers, blue collar workers, programmer, or retirees. One of the lawyers has family who are police officers and in the military.

      • multitotal@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        8 days ago

        I guess they just don't care about homeless people. It's like Patrick Bateman stabbing that homeless person.

    • Guamer [she/her]
      ·
      8 days ago

      Waiting for an excuse to murder like your average cop.

    • trashxeos@lemmygrad.ml
      ·
      8 days ago

      I wonder what the demographics and socio-economic status of the jurors was.

      I feel like it's white there in front of me.

      • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
        ·
        8 days ago

        4 black individuals and one Philippino immigrant on a jury of 12 that had a unanimous verdict. Doesn’t seem racial biased. More so class bias.

        • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          8 days ago

          Helped along by a class-biased legal system no doubt.

          Juries can only answer the questions they're asked. I can see how easy it is for the judge to emphasise the relevance of any 'doubt' and how much a $3 million legal team would be able to cast that doubt.

          Especially in the high profile theatre of a case like this. No way did those jurors not go online or pick up a paper for the whole duration of the trial and the run up.

          On top of that, you have the prosecution backing down step by step until the jurors would say, well if even the victim's supposed defenders don't think this was murder, what are we supposed to do?

        • trashxeos@lemmygrad.ml
          ·
          8 days ago

          Oh, right, jury, not school shooting suspect, I confused my versions of white privelege in that comment.