NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors asked Wednesday to review police and bystander video at the heart of the chokehold manslaughter case against Daniel Penny as his lawyers complained that an aggressive protester was harassing the Marine veteran outside the New York City courthouse.
Within about an hour of starting a second day of deliberations, the anonymous jury sought a second look at videos captured by the body cameras of officers who responded to the subway car where Penny grabbed hold of Jordan Neely, an agitated man whose behavior and words were frightening passengers.
Jurors also wanted to revisit video shot by a Mexican journalist who was on the train that depicts much of the roughly six-minute restraint, and police video of Penny’s station house interview with detectives.
Penny has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. His defense maintains that he was justified in acting to protect fellow subway riders from Neely, believing that the man might be about to hurt someone.
Prosecutors say Penny recklessly squeezed Neely’s neck too hard and for too long. City medical examiners determined that the chokehold killed Neely, though the defense maintains that he died from a mix of schizophrenia, drug use, a genetic condition and his struggle with Penny.
The case has stirred debate about public safety, societal responses to mental illness and homelessness, the line between self-defense and aggression, and the role of race in all of it. Penny is white, while Neely was Black.
A few protesters have routinely gathered outside the courthouse to decry Penny as he comes and goes. Some Penny supporters also have appeared, sometimes holding a flag.
Defense lawyer Thomas Kenniff said in court Wednesday that at one point during the trial, a protester followed Penny to a waiting car and banged on the doors. Then, the attorney said, the same man hurled “violent” slurs at Penny when he arrived Wednesday.
An Associated Press journalist witnessed a person making a crude and taunting remark to Penny as Penny made his way to court.
Kenniff said the man sometimes had been in the courtroom audience, and he asked Judge Maxwell Wiley to bar the man.
Wiley — who said he’d seen the car incident from his office window — declined, noting the public’s right to access court proceedings. He said court officers had occasionally “limited people’s access” because of their conduct inside the courtroom, but he wasn’t inclined to eject anyone over behavior outside.
Early in the trial, Penny’s attorneys expressed concern that the jury might hear the protesters. Their shouts sometimes drift through courtroom windows but generally happen before jurors are seated or after they leave.
Kenniff worried aloud Wednesday about whether the clamor might be audible in the jury room. Wiley said moving deliberations elsewhere could complicate conveying jury notes securely into court, and he noted that he has told jurors to ignore anything they might hear from outside the courtroom.
“At this point, I think that we will assume that they’re following their instructions,” the judge said.
Witnesses said Neely boarded a train in Manhattan on May 1, 2023, started moving erratically, yelling about his hunger and thirst and proclaiming that he was ready to die, to go to jail or — as Penny and some other passengers recalled — to kill.
Penny came up behind Neely, grabbed his neck and head, and took him to the floor. The veteran later told police he “just put him in a chokehold” and “put him out” to ensure he wouldn’t hurt anyone.
Jurors deliberated for about three hours Tuesday, when they also asked to rehear the judge’s instructions about justification defenses and the particulars of the crimes charged.
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Associated Press journalists Larry Neumeister and Ted Shaffrey contributed.
