In connection with the deadly chokehold of a man who was acting irrationally on a New York City subway train, a former U.S. Marine entered a not-guilty plea on Wednesday.
Jordan Neely, a former Michael Jackson impersonator who was shouting and pleading for money when Daniel Penny, 24, pinned him to the ground of the moving subway car and held him in a chokehold for more than three minutes, died on May 1.
Penny, 24, entered a not-guilty plea to second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Neely, 30, was declared dead at a hospital after losing consciousness during the battle.
Earlier last month, a grand jury decided to indict Penny on new counts. The charges’ brief arraignment on Wednesday was brief.
By Only saying “not guilty” before leaving the courthouse with his attorneys, Penny, who is out on bail, is presumed innocent.
Penny, who served in the Marines for four years before being released in 2021, has claimed that he took action to defend himself and others from Neely, who yelled “I’m going to kill you” and said that he was “ready to die” or spend the rest of his life in prison.
In a video that his lawyers published, Penny claimed, “He was yelling in their faces, saying these threats.
I was unable to remain motionless.
According to Neely’s relatives and supporters, despite Neely’s cries for help being ignored due to his mental condition and homelessness,
The Rev. Al Sharpton addressed Neely’s family during his burial on May 19 and said, “What happened to Jordan was a crime, and this family shouldn’t have to stand by themselves.
While Republican politicians like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis hailed Penny as a hero, others like Al Sharpton compared Neely’s death at the hands of Penny’s white hands to the 1984 subway shooting of four Black men by Bernhard Goetz, a white man known as the “subway vigilante.”
Neely was killed aboard an F train in Manhattan.
His death quickly became a flashpoint in the nation’s debates over racial justice and crime.
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