NYC Grand Jury Issues Indictment of Daniel Penny for Strangling Death of Jordan Neely
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The case against Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old former US Marine, has pushed ahead in New York, where a grand jury has indicted him on charges relating to the death of Jordan Neely last month.
Already arraigned for a manslaughter charge and let out on bail, Penny is believed to face one charge of second-degree manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, and another charge of criminally negligent homicide, which carries a four-year sentence. However, the charges will remain sealed until his arraignment on June 28.
“I appreciate DA Bragg conducting a thorough investigation into the death of Jordan Neely,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on Wednesday. “Like I said when the DA first brought charges, I have the utmost faith in the judicial process, and now that the Grand Jury has indicted Daniel Penny, a trial and justice can move forward.”
After the grand jury handed down its decision on Wednesday, Penny's attorneys said they would "aggressively defend" their client.
"While we respect the decision of the grand jury to move this case forward to trial, it should be noted that the standard of proof in a grand jury is very low and there has been no finding of wrongdoing. We're confident that when a trial jury is tasked with weighing the evidence, they will find Daniel Penny's actions on that train were fully justified," attorney Steven Raiser told the press.
Last weekend, Penny’s attorneys released a video in which their client said he was protecting himself and other passengers when he tackled and throttled 30-year-old Neely to death on a New York subway train on May 1.
Immediately before, Neely, who was chronically homeless, had been yelling on the train about his frustrations with being hungry and unhoused. He was believed to be suffering from a mental illness. After Penny tackled Neely and put him in a chokehold, he held Neely there for more than four minutes until Neely’s body went limp. Footage and testimonies from the scene showed Penny held Neely in the position for another 50 seconds.
Penny, who is white, was not initially held by police for the death of Neely, who was Black - a decision critics said was made on account of the races of the two men. Only after 11 days of outcry, protests, and a medical examiner’s office note saying Neely’s death was a homicide caused by compression of the neck, did the district attorney’s office decide to charge Penny, prompting Penny to surrender himself to officers.
Such incidents have repeatedly sparked protests in the US in recent years, especially when the deaths happen at the hands of police officers, such as those that sparked the nationwide uprisings of May and June 2020. Protests have also followed what members of the public widely viewed as unjust court outcomes, such as the “White Night Riot” in May 1979 after Dan White, a former San Francisco supervisor and a Catholic, was handed a light sentence for assassinating Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk, a gay Jewish city supervisor.
"Appears Mr. Penny's media tour these last few weeks was ineffective,” said civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton, who eulogized Neely at his funeral, after the indictment was announced. “We wish the charge would have reflected what this really was. Murder.”
