Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran accused of killing Jordan Neely, a poor train actor, was put on trial for murder on Friday. In a significant selection, Penny chose not to speak in his own protection.
Court clerk Brian Kempf, who testified about issuing an arrest warrant for Had after he missed a jury look in February 2023, was the defense’s last see, according to the New York Post. This occurred two months prior to Neely’s May dying aboard an F station.
The jury wo n’t hear Penny’s personal account of the events that led up to Neely’s death because she chose not to appear on the witness.
The 24-year-old is on trial for second-degree murder and unlawfully negligent homicide. The incident took place on May 1, 2023, on an upstairs F station in Manhattan, when Penny restrained Had in a dangerous stranglehold during an encounter.
Witnesses said Had yelled at passengers before Penny restrained him in a six-minute chokehold before subduing him.
Although Penny chose to remain motionless, his attorney, Thomas Kenniff, addressed reporters after courtroom proceedings. ” Mr. Penny has been heard by this judge.” Before he had the opportunity to speak with an counsel, they only spoke to him once. They audibly heard him hours and hours after the incident, and he told them what had happened, all the same things that the witnesses who were witnesses testified to. That Jordan Neely was terrifying”, Kenniff said, as quoted by the New York Post.
Kenniff stressed the defense’s argument:” He believed, like so many eyewitnesses, that]Neely ] was going to make good … He thought someone was going to get hurt, he thought someone was going to get killed, and he acted. How much more must the jury speak in that respect?
New Yorkers are divided over vigilante justice and train protection as a result of the case. Lawyers maintain that Reilly, though behaving wildly, was non-violent, while the security argues Penny’s actions were justified by Neely’s disturbing tone.
