Daniel Penny did what we would want someone to do for us when he put ranting Jordan Neely in chokehold on NYC subway: lawyer

Daniel Penny “did for others what we would want someone to do for us” — defending panicked subway riders from an “aggressive” Jordan Neely — when he put the troubled homeless man in a fatal chokehold, defense attorneys said Friday.Penny’s lawyer Thomas Kenniff — during opening remarks at the former Marine’s high-profile Manhattan manslaughter trial — painted his client as someone who felt compelled to intervene to ensure other riders weren’t harmed by the raving Neely, making him not quite a hero but definitely not a killer.“This is a case about a young man who did for others what we would want someone to do for us,” Kenniff told the jury of 12 Manhattanites who will decide whether Penny, 26, “recklessly” caused Neely’s death last May.Prosecutors, in their own opening statements, argued Penny was indeed “criminally reckless,” holding a 30-year-old Neely down for nearly six minutes — despite knowing his actions could be fatal — because he didn’t “recognize his humanity.““Mr.Penny was so reckless with Mr.

Neely’s life because he didn’t recognize his humanity,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran told jurors.Kenniff, during his 20-minute remarks, said his client heard Neely say “I will kill” on the crowded F train and “there was only one thing that Daniel Penny could do.”When a “seething, psychotic” Neely first got into the northbound train on May 1, 2023, he demanded food and money from other riders and spoke about going to Rikers Island and being sentenced to life imprisonment — before threatening to “kill,” Kenniff claimed.This all while the passengers’ “fear turns to outright panic” — including a mother who huddled behind a bench to protect her baby, the defense lawyer said.Penny “summoned the courage” to act, and while “that doesn’t have to make him a hero … it doesn’t make him a killer,” Kenniff argued.But Yoran, during her 40-minute openings, blasted Pen...