Jury selection began Monday for a former Marine accused of placing a fatal chokehold on a homeless man who was acting erratically on a subway train in New York City last year.
Daniel Penny, 25, is charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the May 1, 2023, death of Jordan Neely. If convicted, Mr. Penny could face up to 15 years behind bars.
Jury selection could take up to a week, and the trial is expected to last four to six weeks.
Almost all of the 86 prospective jurors raised their hands Monday when Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley asked the first batch of potential jury members if they’d heard about the case, according to the New York Daily News.
“Almost everybody. Not a surprise,” Judge Wiley said, according to the newspaper. “Even if you have formed an opinion about it, that does not disqualify you from serving on this case. … If you have formed an opinion on this case, you have to be prepared to change it.”
The judge only asked 28 potential jurors to return to court Friday morning, where they will likely face questioning from prosecutors and Mr. Penny’s defense team about their experiences riding the subway.
Judge Wiley said dozens of people may testify in the case that drew national attention after some accused Mr. Penny of acting as a vigilante, while others defended him as a good Samaritan who stepped in during a man’s menacing episode.
Those who may take the stand include police detectives, medical professionals and people aboard the F train that day in Manhattan who witnessed Mr. Penny put Neely into a chokehold after the transient started shouting at passengers in an agitated manner.
Prosecutors said the chokehold lasted roughly six minutes, and other passengers helped Mr. Penny restrain Neely.
Neely eventually went limp and was later pronounced dead at a hospital. The city’s medical examiner determined the cause of death was compression of the neck.
Passenger videos of the fatal encounter — which showed Mr. Penny, who is White, grappling with Neely, who is Black, on the floor of the subway car — sparked an uproar over Mr. Penny’s supposed racially fueled vigilantism.
Mr. Penny turned himself into authorities more than a week after Neely’s death. He was released on a $100,000 bond and pleaded not guilty to the charges last year.
In interviews with police immediately following the incident, the former Marine said Neely was shouting “I’m gonna kill you” and that he was “ready to die” and go to jail.
Mr. Penny’s lawyers have said they plan to argue that their client wasn’t applying enough pressure to kill Neely and that Neely had high levels of synthetic cannabinoid K2 in his body at the time.
Juan Alberto Vazquez, who recorded and posted the incident, said at the time that Neely was yelling about his struggles of living on the street before he shouted “I don’t care if I die. I don’t care if I go to jail. I don’t have any food. … I’m done.”
Mr. Vazquez said Neely threw his jacket down at one point and screamed again about how he was ready to go to jail and get a life sentence.
Neely had been arrested more than 40 times in the past decade, including for assaulting a woman in her 60s and kidnapping a 7-year-old girl.
Neely had impersonated Michael Jackson in street performances, though his family said he struggled with drug addiction.
Mr. Penny served four years in the Marines before being discharged in 2021. The Long Island native was looking for work as a bartender when the incident happened.
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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