On Friday the defense rested in the Daniel Penny trial, leaving many observers to ask what Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was thinking in pursuing this case.
Over the course of the second-degree manslaughter trial, Bragg’s prosecutors tried to sell the narrative that the Marine vet overreacted and behaved “recklessly” when he restrained Jordan Neely on that F train back in May 2023.
But a host of prosecution witnesses, Penny’s fellow passengers, knocked massive holes in that tale, as one after another veteran subway rider described how terror-stricken they were trapped on the train car with the angry, unstable, threatening Neely.
One woman said she “was scared s–tless” by Neely’s behavior and recalled him yelling: “I don’t give a damn. I will kill a motherf—–r. I’m ready to die.”
She stuck around after the ordeal to thank Penny for defending her and everyone else in the car that day.
Another, a high-school student, said she was “so nervous” she feared she “was going to pass out,” and said she didn’t hear other passengers’ warning to Penny to let go of Neely during the struggle.
A third said that Penny restrained Neely “so he wouldn’t attack anybody” — more proof that Penny was selflessly acting on behalf of others and a direct blow to lefty claims that his actions were racially motivated.
In short, the prosecution case offered up plenty of evidence that Penny acted rationally and bravely in a harrowing situation.
And the defense started off with a bang.
On Thursday, forensic pathologist Dr. Satish Chundru testified that Penny’s chokehold wasn’t what killed Neely, but instead “the combined effects of sickle-cell crisis, the schizophrenia, the struggle and restraint, and the synthetic marijuana.”
Trial evidence has shown that Neely had K2, a debilitating street drug that can trigger psychosis, in his system at the time of his death.
Chundru’s testimony is bolstered by the fact that Neely was still alive when cops responded to the scene.
With so much evidence that Penny was indeed protecting himself and others, and that other factors likely contributed to Neely’s death, Bragg’s decision to prosecute looks like pure politics.
Closing arguments begin Dec. 2; it’s hard to think the jury will need to deliberate long.
It’s Bragg and his team who’ll have to put in time figuring out why they took such a weak case to trial.