Jury selection is underway in the Daniel Penny trial and today the judge ruled those jurors will remain anonymous because of threats already received by both sides of the case.
On Thursday, New York Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley ruled in favor of the prosecution's request to conceal the identities of the 12 jurors who will be selected to hear the case.
Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran made the request "based on prior threats that have been received in this case by all sides."
She added that anonymity could help ensure a "fairer" outcome in the case.
"I believe that's wise," Wiley said.
There's a small but vocal contingent who shout "Murderer!" every time Penny comes to court.
Daniel Penny arrived at the courthouse this morning to dishonest protesters desperate to make this case about race.
— police.law.news (@policelawnews) October 22, 2024
But. It’s not.
This is Good v. Evil.
A man who threaten to kill strangers on a subway and a hero who made certain he didn’t. pic.twitter.com/OcBJ7KaEww
Of course no one, including the prosecutors in this case think Penny is guilty of murder. He has been charged with two crimes by DA Alvin Bragg:
Penny is not charged with murder. No one claims he intentionally killed Neely. Rather, Bragg has brought two lower homicide charges: second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide...
Under Section 125.15 of the Empire State’s penal code, second-degree manslaughter occurs when a person “recklessly causes the death of another person.” The statute says that a person acts recklessly, in this context, when he “is aware of and consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that [death] will occur.” ...
By contrast, Section 125.10 provides that criminally negligent homicide occurs when “with criminal negligence, [a person] causes the death of another person.” The statute says that a person acts with criminal negligence, in this context, “when he fails to perceive a substantial and unjustifiable risk that [death] will occur.” The act is deemed negligent, rather than reckless, because the actor fails to perceive the risk of death, rather than perceiving but consciously disregarding it.
He faces up to 15 years on the manslaughter charge and 4 years on the criminally negligent homicide charge. He could be convicted on both counts but Andrew McCarthy says the case was charged this way specifically to give the jury a lesser charge they can go with if they don't buy the second-degree manslaughter charge. This way Bragg could still potentially get a win on the lesser charge. But again, murder isn't even in the ballpark here and there's no evidence race was a factor either. But for the activists outside, when all you have is a race hammer, everything looks like a white supremacy nail.
The Free Press has a good story summarizing some of the early press coverage and what it missed.
The New York Times boiled the full day of testimony, in which five NYPD officers testified about the incident, into a story titled “Penny Minimized Duration of Chokehold During Questioning, Video Shows,” pointing out the alleged inconsistencies between Penny’s initial descriptions of the event and video evidence captured by police. To Gothamist, a local NPR-affiliated publication, the takeaway was that Penny “told police at the time that he had put the man ‘in a choke.’ ” Even the New York Post focused on Penny’s statement “I just put him out” in what it called “dramatic video” from the day of the incident.
Almost all of the reports left out that after the alleged choke hold, an officer administered a dose of the opioid antidote Narcan to Neely—which could point to the victim’s history of drug abuse. The same officer who administered the Narcan, Sergeant Carl Johnson, later called Penny a “Good Samaritan” in his summary of the crime. And in a 14-minute video compilation played by the defense, one woman was shown standing in shock on the subway platform, telling an officer that Penny “literally saved the train.”
I'm going to keep an eye on this as the trial develops. Maybe I'll even do daily updates if it seems compelling. My own guess at this point, and that's all it is, is that Penny could be convicted on the lesser charge basically in recognition of the fact that a man died, even though I don't believe that was ever Penny's intent. I guess it will depend who winds up on this anonymous jury.
Even if convicted, I really hope Penny serves zero time. He stood up to a deranged man making threats on a trapped group of people. If Alvin Bragg won't protect New Yorkers, they shouldn't be punished for trying to protect themselves.
