Daniel Penny remained patient on his first day in court as prosecution and defense presented very different versions of Jordan Neely’s subway death

Daniel Penny entered the Manhattan courtroom with his shoulders back and stoic, having already endured the crowd of BLM protesters outside the building.

But street-level noise could still be heard from the 13th-floor courtroom, packed with reporters and Jordan Neely’s supporters.

The following uproar underlined the alarming nature of this case, which exposed the madness of our ultra-progressive, soft-on-crimes prosecutor Alvin Bragg, allowing mentally ill, violent criminals to walk free while the good people of Gotham rose to the challenge.

Unfortunately, Penny stepped forward to help. A defender.

Because for this charitable act, the former Marine, who is white, was smeared as a racist vigilante, a “subway strangler” and He faces second-degree manslaughter. and criminally negligent homicide for the death of Neely, a mentally ill, homeless man and street performer who threatened straps. Penny subjected Neely, an unarmed black man, to strangulation, which the medical examiner said killed him.

He now faces up to 15 years in prison.

“This guy took it upon himself to take down Jordan Neely. “To neutralize him,” prosecutor Dafna Yoran told jurors in Friday’s opening statement.

Each side presents very different pictures of what happened during the drowning. Yoran argued that the Marine veteran was specifically trained in drowning. He understood their power. He “went too far” and was criminally negligent.

He also added that Penny, who was trained in CPR, did not try to revive Neely, but instead caught his hat that had fallen off his head, dusted it off and waited for police. That sentence made Neely’s supporters gasp.

“Jordan Neely took his last breath on the dirty floor of an uptown F train; he was 30 years old, homeless, using synthetic drugs, and suffering from mental illness when he died,” he said.

“We pass people like Jordan Neely every day… As New Yorkers, we train ourselves not to engage. Not making eye contact. Pretending people like Jordan Neely weren’t there. “

And on May 1, 2023, “Jordan Neely wanted to be seen,” he said, adding that his “actions that day scared a lot of people” on the train.

As a regular subway rider who has been pepper-sprayed, assaulted, and physically threatened multiple times, I’d say petrified is a better adjective. Even if we are not physically in that car, we know that terror.

Defense attorney Thomas Kenniff said Neeley was “seething, psychotic” and filled with “mindless rage.” He attacked women and jumped in front of a mother’s baby carriage. He said he was ready to go to Rikers and threatened to kill.

Kenniff called his client “Danny“We did for others what we wanted someone to do for us.”

However, Yoran argued that Penny’s actions were excessive, using measurements of minutes and seconds.

It took only 30 seconds for the train to reach Broadway Lafayette from its Second Avenue stop; Here passengers evacuated the train and many called 911. But he said Penny still continued to choke for five minutes and 53 seconds.

But fear and threats are not measured in seconds or minutes.

Especially when he’s trapped in an underground tube with a snarling punk who has no regard for human life, including his own.

Those 30 seconds can feel like five minutes, those five minutes can feel like a lifetime. And all of this happened amidst random, even deadly, acts of violence on the subway.

Even though the passengers had gotten out, Neely still posed a threat to the people on the platform if he was released.

“This struggle lasted five to six minutes. But Danny wasn’t squeezing his neck, and he couldn’t. We know this because if that had happened, Neely would have passed out within the first minute,” Kenniff said.

Both sides said the video would provide crucial evidence in their favor, and jurors saw footage of paramedics unsuccessfully trying to resuscitate Neely.

“This case isn’t about heroes and villains,” Kenniff said. “Danny wasn’t looking to change the course of anyone else’s life, and he certainly wasn’t looking to change the course of his own.”

Neely’s life and death are a tragedy and are now in doubt. Her mother was killed by her boyfriend when she was only 14 years old. Relatives said she found solace in dancing and performing on the subway. But he went astray numerous times, became homeless, and was arrested for violent attacks.

Neely’s story is the culmination of societal failures on many levels.

But Penny shouldn’t have to pay the price for this broken system.