The prosecution and defense teams delivered their closing arguments on Monday in the case of Daniel Penny, who is on trial for his alleged role in the death of Jordan Neely.
The defense portrayed Penny as a man who protected the other passengers on the subway train who testified they were afraid of Neely, The Daily Wire reported.
Defense attorney Steve Raiser asked for jurors to put themselves on the train the day Neely died, using sound effects of closing doors and trains leaving a station. He also played police body camera footage of passengers talking about how they were afraid of Neely.
“Who would you want on the next train with you?” Raiser asked jurors.
“Danny acted when others didn’t,” Raiser added, according to the New York Post. “He put his life on the line. He did that for perfect strangers.”
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“Who would you want on the next train ride with you?” Raiser asked again near the end of his hours-long closing statements.
“The guy on the train with the earbuds minding his own business, who you know will be there for you if something happens?” Raiser continued. “Or, you just hope someone like Neely never enters, especially when you’re all alone.”
During her closing arguments, Manhattan prosecutor Dafna Yoran claimed that Penny, who is white, placed Neely, who is black, in a chokehold due to racial prejudices. Penny and witnesses have said that Neely was threatening passengers when Penny put him in the chokehold. Penny has not been charged with a hate crime.
“He didn’t recognize that Jordan Neely was a person,” Yoran told the jury, according to Fox News. “He saw him as a person that needed to be eliminated.”
Yoran also replayed footage from Penny’s first police interrogation, where he was not told Neely had died. Penny refers to Neely as a “crackhead” in the interrogation and told detectives, “You know these guys, they’re pushing people in front of trains and stuff.” This was a reference to the numerous people in New York City who have been pushed in front of subway trains by mentally ill individuals.
“We’ve all spoken dismissively about people like Jordan Neely,” Yoran said, according to Fox. “Maybe we, too, have lumped them all together like this, but the context is very telling here. When the defendant is talking like this about Mr. Neely, he knows he very likely had killed him. Can you imagine a reasonable person speaking like this about a human being that he or she had just killed?”
Penny didn’t know he had likely killed Neely. Neely had a pulse when police arrived and took over the situation.
Yoran previously brought up race during her opening statement and allowed a witness to repeatedly refer to Penny as “the white guy” while she referred to him as “the white man.”
The jury will likely begin deliberations on Tuesday. Penny faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of manslaughter or up to 4 years if he’s convicted on the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.
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[[{“value”:”
The prosecution and defense teams delivered their closing arguments on Monday in the case of Daniel Penny, who is on trial for his alleged role in the death of Jordan Neely.
The defense portrayed Penny as a man who protected the other passengers on the subway train who testified they were afraid of Neely, The Daily Wire reported.
Defense attorney Steve Raiser asked for jurors to put themselves on the train the day Neely died, using sound effects of closing doors and trains leaving a station. He also played police body camera footage of passengers talking about how they were afraid of Neely.
“Who would you want on the next train with you?” Raiser asked jurors.
“Danny acted when others didn’t,” Raiser added, according to the New York Post. “He put his life on the line. He did that for perfect strangers.”
CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE
“Who would you want on the next train ride with you?” Raiser asked again near the end of his hours-long closing statements.
“The guy on the train with the earbuds minding his own business, who you know will be there for you if something happens?” Raiser continued. “Or, you just hope someone like Neely never enters, especially when you’re all alone.”
During her closing arguments, Manhattan prosecutor Dafna Yoran claimed that Penny, who is white, placed Neely, who is black, in a chokehold due to racial prejudices. Penny and witnesses have said that Neely was threatening passengers when Penny put him in the chokehold. Penny has not been charged with a hate crime.
“He didn’t recognize that Jordan Neely was a person,” Yoran told the jury, according to Fox News. “He saw him as a person that needed to be eliminated.”
Yoran also replayed footage from Penny’s first police interrogation, where he was not told Neely had died. Penny refers to Neely as a “crackhead” in the interrogation and told detectives, “You know these guys, they’re pushing people in front of trains and stuff.” This was a reference to the numerous people in New York City who have been pushed in front of subway trains by mentally ill individuals.
“We’ve all spoken dismissively about people like Jordan Neely,” Yoran said, according to Fox. “Maybe we, too, have lumped them all together like this, but the context is very telling here. When the defendant is talking like this about Mr. Neely, he knows he very likely had killed him. Can you imagine a reasonable person speaking like this about a human being that he or she had just killed?”
Penny didn’t know he had likely killed Neely. Neely had a pulse when police arrived and took over the situation.
Yoran previously brought up race during her opening statement and allowed a witness to repeatedly refer to Penny as “the white guy” while she referred to him as “the white man.”
The jury will likely begin deliberations on Tuesday. Penny faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of manslaughter or up to 4 years if he’s convicted on the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.
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