NEW YORK – Jurors have resumed deliberations the trial of Daniel Penny.
Penny, a Marine veteran, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in connection with the chokehold death of Jordan Neely aboard the subway last year. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison. There is no minimum sentence.
So far, jurors have done that deliberated for about 12 hours.
On Thursday morning the jury had finished listening to the reading of defense cross-examination of New York City Medical Examiner Dr. Cynthia Harriswho performed Neely’s autopsy, and ruled his cause of death was neck compression.
Just before noon on Thursday, jurors sent another note, this time requesting additional witness videos of the incident. And just after noon, the jurors again asked the judge to provide them with the definitions of “recklessness” and “negligence.” The jurors then took a break from deliberations for lunch.
The jury has have sent several notes since they began deliberations Tuesday. On Wednesday, they requested cell phone video of the incident, as well as police bodycam video and the police station interview with Penny.
Prosecutors allege that Penny’s intentions were good in restraining Neely, who was a passenger testified acted erratically and threateningly aboard an F trainbut they say Penny has had a stranglehold on him for too long.
Penny’s defense said he didn’t apply pressure, and I just had him in a hold. They called an expert witness did not agree with the ME’s determination of the cause of deathand argued that a combination of factors, including medications and sickle cell crisis, was the cause.
The trial so far has drawn several lines of spectators to observe, and even more people lined up to enter the courtroom. On Thursday, for the first time, fewer than ten people were present in the courtroom.
Neely’s father sues Penny
Separately, Neely’s father Andre Zachary filed a lawsuit against Penny in New York Supreme Court on Wednesday. In the lawsuit, Zachary accuses Penny of negligence, assault and battery. The lawsuit seeks damages “in an amount exceeding the jurisdictional limits of all lower courts in the State of New York that would otherwise have jurisdiction over this matter.”
Penny’s attorney called the lawsuit a distraction, the Associated Press reported.
