The man who fatally choked a homeless person on a New York subway on May 1 will face prosecution. This has been decided by a so-called grand jury in New York. Daniel Penny, a 24-year-old former Marine, killed 30-year-old Jordan Neely in May this year.
For certain crimes in the US, a grand jury consisting of citizens must decide whether to prosecute. The exact charges against the suspect are not yet known. The exact date of the trial has not yet been announced.
Video footage of the incident shared on social media in early May shows Neely being held in a stranglehold by Penny for three minutes, who pins him to the floor of the subway car. According to witnesses, the homeless man had previously shouted through the subway car that he was hungry and thirsty and not much left to live for. According to some witnesses, Neely did not directly threaten anyone, including Penny. He would have made people in the train set feel unsafe.
A coroner has since determined that the stranglehold caused Neely’s death. The suspect has stated through his lawyer that it was never his intention to kill the man and that he had no racist motives when he pressed the black Neely to the ground.
Neely had been homeless for some time. He occasionally raised money by imitating the late singer Michael Jackson in touristy Times Square and on the subway. According to his family, he had been suffering from mental health problems for years. Well-known Americans such as Reverend Al Sharpton and politician Alexendria Ocasio-Cortez attended his funeral.
The case sparked demonstrations in New York, with participants demanding that the perpetrator be prosecuted. Neely’s death sparked discussions about the homeless and mental health crisis in New York and the rest of the United States, as well as racial inequality in the country.
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