The jury in the trial of former Marine Daniel Penny began its deliberations on Dec. 3.
The 12 men and women must now decide whether Penny’s actions were justified when he put Jordan Neely, a mentally ill homeless man, into a headlock on May 1, 2023, and wrestled him to the ground, or whether those actions crossed the line into manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, as prosecutors allege.
The trial has captivated the attention of much of the nation and the world, and protesters sympathizing with Neely have assembled outside the courthouse at 100 Centre Street almost every morning while it has been underway.
Opinions about the case have been polarized from the beginning. Some accuse Penny of an excess of zeal and careless overuse of physical force, while others believe that Penny acted to protect innocent people on an uptown F train from a crazed, menacing individual, and that his actions were entirely understandable given the failure of the police and mental health service providers to do their job and keep the public safe.
The defense and prosecution have been in agreement that Neely, who a postmortem examination found to have synthetic cannabinoids in his system, provoked the confrontation on that day in May 2023. They concur that his words and actions were menacing and gave passengers on the train reasonable and immediate fear for their safety. […]
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