A grand jury has indicted Daniel Penny, the ex-Marine accused of fatally choking Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train on May 1, in an important step on the way to—oh, let’s face it, probably on the way to another jury acquitting a white man on the grounds of feeling unsafe. But you never know!
The indictment won’t be unsealed until Penny’s next court appearance on June 28. Last month, more than a week after Neely’s death, Penny was arrested on a preliminary charge of second-degree manslaughter, or recklessly causing the death of another person, which (theoretically, at least) can carry a prison sentence of up to 15 years.
Neely, a Black street performer known for his Michael Jackson impressions, who was experiencing homelessness, had been shouting at passengers about being hungry and thirsty when Penny put him in a chokehold, according to witnesses and video evidence. “I’m tired already,” Neely said, according to Juan Alberto Vazquez, a freelance journalist who described the incident to the New York Times. “‘I don’t care if I go to jail and get locked up. I’m ready to die.”
Instead of responding in a humane way to a fellow passenger who was clearly suffering, Penny and others reacted as if this unpleasantness during their commute was putting lives in danger. Penny allegedly restrained Neely in a chokehold while two other men helped pin him down.
Another passenger could be heard on a video taken by Vazquez warning the men about the dangers of what they were doing, citing his wife’s military training on chokeholds. “You don’t want to catch a murder charge,” the other passenger said, offering a somewhat optimistic view of the justice system. Penny, who probably should have known better from his own military training, apparently didn’t heed the warning.
Penny and his attorneys have claimed he did not mean to harm Neely, in spite of compressing Neely’s airways for several minutes even after the other man had lost consciousness. As a white man accused of killing a Black man, Penny has also said that he can’t possibly be racist because he’s worldly, well-traveled, and had been planning a road trip through Africa—never mind that he perceived danger from a Black man who wasn’t actually physically threatening anyone; some people think he’s a nice normal guy!
Unfortunately, the criminal justice system often agrees with such defenses, which is why someone like George Zimmerman got away with shooting a Black teenager and Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty for killing two people and shooting a third at a Black Lives Matter protest. Meanwhile, some conservatives have embraced Penny as their next hero, defending the right for guys like him to use deadly force whenever they perceive a threat. Their crowdfunding efforts have raised $2.8 million, a depressing figure for those of use who don’t view mental illness or homelessness or being Black in public as capital crimes punishable by random dudes with a vigilante complex.
Although the outcome of the trial remains to be seen, the indictment was a relief to the family of Jordan Neely, their attorneys told media outlets. “Any reasonable person knows choking someone for that long will kill them,” an attorney for the Neely family told the Washington Post. “Daniel Penny did not have the right to be the judge, jury, and executioner.”
They have a point. Whatever Penny wants to tell himself to justify his actions, at least he has the chance to face a judge and a jury of his peers, who will consider all the evidence and context to decide what fate he deserves. That’s a chance that Jordan Neely will never have.
(featured image: screengrab, Eyewitness News ABC7NY)
