Jason Cohen
CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson said Monday that a Manhattan jury was justified in acquitting Marine veteran Daniel Penny on charges of criminally negligent homicide in the death of homeless man Jordan Neely.
Penny placed Neely in a chokehold for several minutes after he was yelling and acting erratically on a New York City subway, with witnesses saying they felt threatened by the homeless man’s conduct. Jackson, on “CNN Newsroom with Pamela Brown,” suggested the jury may have believed the incident was an act of self-defense or that Penny wasn’t responsible for Neely’s death due to the influence of schizophrenia and drugs in Neely’s system.
WATCH:
“I’m not surprised by it. Certainly we saw just last week that they were hung up on the reckless charge. That was the manslaughter charge that carried the 15 years. And I think that there were concerns as to why they were hung up,” Jackson said. “I think when you look at this, what does it tell us? First of all, we have to look at what negligent, criminally negligent homicide means. It means that the jury would conclude that he was negligent, that is, that he failed to perceive the risk that his activities could cause the death of Jordan Neely. However, I think that there are two issues that you look at that are critical.”
Penny previously also faced a more serious charge of second-degree manslaughter, but Judge Maxwell Wiley dismissed it after the jury was hung. The judge enabled the jury to consider the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.
“Number one, was it self-defense? Certainly that’s what the defense argued, that [Neely] represented an immediate threat. And as a result of representing that immediate threat of death or serious physical injury, that restraining him in the way that he did was reasonable and appropriate,” Jackson continued. “And so that was the one issue. I think the second issue was the dealing with the causation. What does causation mean? It means that the prosecution had to establish that [Penny] caused the death of Jordan Neely. And there was really dispute on the medical evidence. On the one hand, you had the prosecutors’ medical examiner saying, in fact, it was the chokehold that caused it.”
“On the other hand, you had the defense saying a number of things. Number one, that there wasn’t sufficient pressure applied such that it could be the chokehold. Number two, that schizophrenia diagnosis, that the issue with the synthetic marijuana et cetera caused it,” he added. “So I think there were plenty of issues for the jury to conclude that just beyond the reasonable doubt, either a) it was self-defense and b) that there wasn’t, he wasn’t the cause. So those were two good reasons as to why they could acquit and that’s exactly what they did.”
Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg unveiled the charges against Penny on June 28, 2023. The veteran faced as many as 15 years behind bars.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
