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By: Meyer Wolfsheim
On Monday, six Manhattan residents were selected to serve on the jury for the high-profile trial of former Marine Daniel Penny, who faces manslaughter charges over the subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely. Penny, 25, is accused of fatally choking Neely, a homeless man with a history of mental health issues, following an altercation on a northbound F train in May 2023. As jury selection began in Manhattan Supreme Court, several panelists shared personal experiences of subway harassment, highlighting the tense environment surrounding this case, according to the New York Post.
Among the selected jurors is a Yorkville-based insurance attorney who recalled a disturbing incident from eight years ago when she was “rammed” by a woman pushing a cart during her morning commute. The woman described backing off after the stranger called her a name, noting, “It kind of ended there.” Another juror, a retiree from the Upper East Side, said he was once harassed by a “homeless gentleman” on the Q train at 96th Street, sharing that the encounter seemed to have “no particular reason.”
A third juror, a former librarian residing in Morningside Heights, recounted an unsettling incident where her daughter was attacked in Times Square seven years ago by a man she believed was either mentally ill or homeless. “This man walked up behind her and punched her in the back of the head,” she recalled.
Other panelists selected include a theater enthusiast from the Lincoln Center area, a healthcare worker who recently emigrated from the Philippines, and a software engineer originally from Atlanta, the New York Post noted. While three of the six selected jurors use the subway regularly, the others reported taking it only occasionally, providing a mix of perspectives on the transit system’s realities.
Ultimately, 12 jurors and four alternates will be chosen to weigh the evidence and decide if Penny’s actions in Neely’s death were reckless. Prosecutors argue Penny used unnecessary and prolonged force on Neely, who was reportedly verbally threatening passengers on the train. Neely was unarmed, and the chokehold lasted six minutes, continuing even after the train doors opened and passengers had the chance to escape.
The defense claims Penny acted in self-defense, pointing to Neely’s history of aggression and chronic K2 abuse, which can lead to unpredictable behavior. During juror questioning last week, one young Black juror from the East Village shared his familiarity with K2’s effects, suggesting the drug can make individuals erratic and difficult to predict. “Not that he deserved it,” he noted, “but just the influence of drugs… you don’t really know what a person is going to do on K2.”
In a bid to gauge juror attitudes, Penny’s attorney, Thomas Kenniff, asked the group whether they thought subway crime had increased, if they supported Governor Kathy Hochul’s decision to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops to the transit system, and if they viewed homelessness on the subway as a significant issue. The New York Post reported that more than a dozen potential jurors were dismissed on Monday for various reasons, including one woman who expressed she might sympathize with Penny due to her family’s military background. She admitted she’d find it hard to remain impartial, explaining her belief that “people should step in when they see a woman getting harassed.”
Another juror who was dismissed shared that she had experienced repeated harassment on the subway, describing how she had been “stepped on, sat on, grinded up against, pushed”
