Thursday morning’s CNN News Central included two segments where anchor Rahel Solomon discussed the manslaughter indictment of Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran who detained an attacker, Jordan Neely, on a New York City subway, unfortunately causing Neely’s death in the process. Solomon and both of her guests, CNN national correspondent Brynn Gingras and Defense and Trial Attorney Misty Marris, all portrayed the event as if Penny had put an innocent “homeless street performer in a fatal chokehold,” with little context of the real situation provided.
The first segment featured Gingras’s New York reporting on the case, as the indictment was scheduled to be officially announced later in the day. Her report described the incident as if Neely, “a street artist…suffering from homelessness,” had entered the train and begun “shouting about being hungry, and thirsty, and he didn’t care if he needed to die.”
This last thing that Neely reportedly shouted only makes sense in the context of some of the other things that he had been shouting, according to an interview with Penny, such as that he was going to kill people, and that he didn’t care if he went to jail or “needed to die” because of it.
Gingras then cited Penny’s claim that Neely had been “disturbing others” and being “threatening” to other people on the train. Penny “took it upon himself to…subdue Neely until the police arrived,” which was portrayed as a bad decision with Gingras’s omission of the full context of the reasoning of the decision.
She ignored the truth of Neely’s verbal attacks on the people on the train, and also the fact that this was not the first time that Neely had been charged for similar actions; in fact, at the time of the incident, he was reportedly fleeing a warrant for his arrest for not appearing at a court date for a previous offence.
Gingras claimed that the case has “divided opinions, not only in New York City, but across the country” regarding the reasons for Penny’s actions and any possible responses to them. This was despite the widespread monetary support that he had received on his GiveSendGo page, which she mentioned; this would not be the first time that CNN had condemned those who supported him.
She criticized Penny’s decision of “taking things into [his] own hands,” presumably willing to apply this standard to others as well:
And of course this is the case that really has divided opinions, not only in New York City, but across the country, some people talking about it being a result of the crime and the incidents that we have been seeing in homelessness on New York City’s subways, and also this issue of taking things into your own hands, and the homeless issue in general, which is what many cities are grappling with all across the country.
The second segment in the show included a discussion between Solomon and Marris regarding the process of the trial itself. Again, both ignored the context of the danger that the passengers of the train had been in when Neely had entered the train, focusing instead on Penny’s actions, viewed on their own. They discussed the significance of a second degree manslaughter charge, measuring Penny’s actions during the incident to “a recklessness standard,” indicating that he had known that “there was a known risk of death” that he had ignored.
Well, yes, Penny did see that risk of death, but it was a risk that he saw directed at the other people on the train, including women and children, and at himself. His selfless actions in the face of that risk to his own danger were what made his actions truly commendable, and frankly, we need more brave men like that in our society.
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Transcript of the segments below (click Expand):
CNN News Central
06/15/23
9:12 AM
RAHEL SOLOMON: A grand jury in New York has voted to indict a Marine veteran after he put a homeless street performer in a fatal chokehold. This all happened on a New York City subway train. Sources tell us that Daniel Penny has been indicted on second degree manslaughter charges. Prosecutors expected to make the official announcement later today.
Penny is accused of killing Jordan Neely. This all happened early last month, after pinning him down to the train floor and then holding him in a chokehold until he stopped breathing.
CNN’s Brynn Gingras following this story from us—for us, from New York. Brynn, good morning. What more do we know about these charges?
BRYNN GINGRAS: Yeah, Rahel, like you said, we’re still waiting to hear when the Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, is going to officially announce this indictment, and whether or not he’s actually going to unseal the indictment before Daniel Penny heads to court, where it will be officially unsealed otherwise.
But as you sorta laid out, we do know a lot about this case, right, a lot of this was on social media because there was video of at least part of what happened on that subway train.
According to witnesses who tell CNN that da—Jordan Neely, a street artist, came onto the train, who’s also a person suffering from homelessness, and was shouting about being hungry, and thirsty, and he didn’t care if he needed to die. Well Daniel Penny, a former—a veteran Marine, said he seemed that he was, you know, disturbing others, he was threatening, and then took it upon himself to, what he says and told in a—an interview, that he was going to subdue Neely until the police arrived. He put him in his chokehold and then we know of course it was long enough to cause the death of Jordan Neely.
And of course this is the case that really has divided opinions, not only in New York City, but across the country, some people talking about it being a result of the crime and the incidents that we have been seeing in homelessness on New York City’s subways, and also this issue of taking things into your own hands, and the homeless issue in general, which is what many cities are grappling with all across the country.
We do have some statements that were given to us about this, from Jordan Neely’s family, about the indictment that is now handed down against Penny. It’s—he said, “Mr. Penny didn’t have the right to be the judge, jury, and executioner.” That, coming from his family.
And again, speaking to the fact that this has been an issue so dividing many people, the defense GoFundMe for Daniel Penny, Rahel, is at $2.8 million at this point. His attorneys saying in a statement, “it should be noted that the standard of proof in a grand jury is very low and there has been no finding of wrongdoing. We’re confident that when a trial jury is tasked with weighing the evidence, they will find Daniel Penny’s actions on that train were fully justified.”
Again, in that interview, Daniel Penny saying that this had nothing to do with race, that if he had felt he was in the same situation again, he would do this again, or take action again, at least.
But certainly we’re gonna keep a close eye on this one, and we’ll let you know when the Manhattan District Attorney makes the official announcement. Rahel?
SOLOMON: We know you’ll be watching that for us, Brynn. And we’re actually gonna decide, and—and speak with a legal analyst in the 10 o’clock hour about what a potential trial in this case could ultimately look like.
Brynn Gingras, thank you.
(10:21 AM)
SOLOMON: Well, John, a grand jury in New York has voted to indict a Marine veteran after he put a homeless street performer in a fatal chokehold. This all happened on a New York City subway train.
Sources tell us that Daniel Penny has been indicted on second-degree manslaughter charges. Prosecutors expected to make the official announcement later today.
Now, his attorneys tell CNN that they are confident that the jury will find that his actions were, quote, “fully justified.” Penny is accused of killing Jordan Neely, who you see on your screen here, early last month after pinning him down to the train floor and then holding him in a chokehold until he stopped breathing.
With us now, Defense and Trial Attorney Misty Marris. Misty, great to have you on a day like today. So, help us understand, first, I think it would be helpful to understand the charges here. So, second-degree manslaughter, what that implies and what standard has to be met?
MISTY MARRIS: Really important to break this down, because something that people need to understand, this does not require intent to kill. It's what's called a recklessness standard. It means that Penny saw there was a risk, there was a known risk of death, but he ignored it and he continued with the conduct, ultimately resulting in the death of Neely.
So, a recklessness standard is a little bit lesser of a hurdle for prosecutors to prove. They don't have to prove that it was intentional conduct, only that he ignored a very obvious and open risk.
SOLOMON: Misty, if you're the defense, I mean, how do you prove that Penny feared for his life?
MARRIS: So, right now, we know that this is where the defense is going, right? They've said as much in the media, Penny himself releasing a video, that this was self-defense of not only himself but the other people who were riders on the train on that day. And, look, the standard is, the prosecution has to disprove that his force was justified, so the prosecution has the burden.
But what they're going to be asked to do, the jury, is to look from the eyes of Penny on that day. What were the totality of the circumstances? And the best way to do that, what are the other witnesses going to say about what was happening, about the words that were used? Was there any overt act that put them in an imminent threat? And was that—that a fear of—of grave injury or death on the part of the others? The best people are going to be the ones that were on that train that day, and several of them have spoken out and said that they were fearful. So, it'll be interesting to see what happens when they're on the witness stand.
SOLOMON: Well, speaking of on the train that day, I mean, does Penny testify?
MARRIS: Yeah, I really think unless there's something that we don't know—of course, we don't know what we don't know, right? So, as lawyers are going to know about his background and what could potentially come out, because as a defense attorney, putting your client on the stand could potentially open doors to inquiries that would normally be closed.
But I think in this case, it would be important for the jury to hear from his perspective what was going on in his mind, because that's going to be the standard: what was going on in his mind at the time, and was it reasonable?
SOLOMON: What about his experience, his military experience, and the time—and I think there's some debate about how long he had actually put Jordan Neely in a chokehold, but the time in which he had kept him in a chokehold.
MARRIS: These are both great questions. First of all, the military experience, especially if he takes the stand, I really see that coming into the courtroom. It's relevant because he might have specialized experience that would have—he has more knowledge about when a chokehold becomes fatal. Because in this case, maybe the initial altercation initially restraining Neely will be found justifiable. But he has to say that every single second that he kept him in a chokehold was a justifiable action because of that imminent threat.
So, I think this timing, whether it be 15 minutes, as Neely's lawyers have said, less than five minutes, as Penny has said, there's going to be a lot of scrutiny on why did you keep him restrained for that amount of time? And didn't you see that he was not able to breathe? And, in fact, on that video, there're passengers on the train saying, “He cannot breathe. Wow, that's a strong chokehold.” So, his military experience really plays into a state of mind and whether or not he ignored a—an obvious risk.
SOLOMON: Yes. Misty, of course, as you know, this was an event that really set off a lot of strong emotions on both sides, a lot of questions, and we'll probably get some answers when we see the indictment a little bit later today. Misty Marris, thank you.
MARRIS: Thank you.
