(NewsNation) — 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 the Marine veteran was being harassed outside the New York City courthouse.
On the second day of deliberations, the anonymous jury also asked to rehear part of a city medical examiner’s testimony. The request included a portion in which defense lawyers asked about her decision to issue a death certificate without getting toxicology test results for Jordan Neely, the agitated man whom Penny grabbed around the neck in a subway car.
Penny has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Jurors sought a second look at a bystander’s video that captured much of the roughly six-minute restraint; responding officers’ body camera videos; and police video of Penny’s subsequent station house interview with detectives.
A major aspect of Penny’s defense entails contesting the city medical examiner’s office’s determination that the chokehold killed Neely.
In part of the testimony jurors reheard Wednesday, city medical examiner Dr. Cynthia Harris said Neely’s autopsy, the bystander’s video and investigative findings gave her all the information she needed.
“No toxicological result imaginable was going to change my opinion,” she said, even if they showed “enough fentanyl to put down an elephant.”
A pathologist hired by the defense testified that Neely died from a mix of schizophrenia, synthetic marijuana use, a genetic condition and his struggle with Penny.
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, go to jail or — as Penny and some other passengers recalled — 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.
The central question facing the jury is whether Penny was justified in placing the chokehold on Neely. Prosecutors have asked the jurors to put themselves in the shoes of subway passengers after witnesses said Neely was threatening passengers.
Jurors must decide whether Penny’s actions were reckless and wrong as prosecutors allege or if the architecture student who was on his way to the gym in 2023 when the incident took place was defending himself and other passengers.
The burden of proof remains on prosecutors who must prove to the jury that when Penny held Neely in the chokehold, he did not reasonably believe that his life and the lives of passengers were in danger. Prosecutors maintain that given Penny’s military background, he knew the difference between using a chokehold to subdue someone safely and that he knew how to perform one that could kill another person.
Penny’s attorneys have portrayed their client as a protector of those on the train who stepped in when no one else would.
Experts have disputed whether the chokehold itself resulted in Neely’s death or whether a combination of other factors, including the presence of a snythetic marijuana in Neely’s system, was the cause.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
