Daniel Penny ‘needs to be celebrated’ for actions main as much as deadly chokehold of Jordan Neely: lawyer

Daniel Penny, the Marine who positioned Jordan Neely in a deadly chokehold, “needs to be celebrated” for leaping into motion “for the advantage of others” on the crowded Manhattan subway, his lawyer asserted in a brand new radio interview.

Thomas Kenniff made the remarks Friday night time on WABC’s ‘Cats & Cosby’ present hours after Penny, 24, was arraigned on a cost of second-degree manslaughter.

“He didn’t enter the subway searching for to hurt anybody. He didn’t assault anybody,” Kenniff mentioned of Penny.

“He was actually placing himself in hurt’s manner for the advantage of others. He shouldn’t be pilloried for that. He needs to be celebrated,” Kenniff advised hosts John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby.

Penny positioned Neely right into a lethal chokehold aboard an uptown F practice on Might 1 after the homeless man was noticed “making threats and scaring passengers,” prosecutors mentioned.

“The truth is that there’s not a single residing, respiration New Yorker — notably anybody who rides the subways — who can’t relate to precisely the type of scenario that my consumer and the opposite passengers on the practice have been confronted with,” Kenniff mentioned in Friday’s radio interview.

“By no means form or kind [did Penny] search to demean the sufferer on this case,” he added.

Kenniff advised the hosts his group is conducting a “very energetic investigation” that he mentioned will absolve Penny of the fees in opposition to him.

“My agency works with all retired NYPD detectives, among the finest the enterprise,” Kenniff mentioned, “We’ve uncovered rather a lot, and I feel there’ll be much more to return, fairly frankly.”

Penny surrendered to police in Manhattan Friday morning and arraigned quickly after. He was launched after posting $100,000 bail.

Neely’s family blasted Manhattan prosecutors for less than charging Penny with manslaughter, arguing that the previous Marine deliberately killed the homeless man.

The authorized group pushed for a second-degree homicide cost — Penny had undergone intensive bodily coaching and knew he was pushing the chokehold maneuver to the deadly restrict, they argued.

“We knew that justice wouldn’t be swift. We realized that justice was going to be a journey,” the attorneys mentioned. “At this time we aren’t going to cease till we’ve got full justice. We’re going to pause to acknowledge that we’ve got taken step one, a step in the suitable path.”

Stunning video captured Penny wrapping his arms across the neck of the homeless man — who struggled with mental health issues since his mom’s homicide over a decade in the past — whereas different commuters helped to restrain Neely’s flailing limbs.

Town medical expert dominated Neely’s dying a murder, noting he died resulting from “compression of neck (chokehold).

Within the wake of Neely’s dying, debate ensued over whether or not the tragedy was justified. In keeping with witness accounts, Neely was acting erratically and was threatening different passengers earlier than Penny stepped in.

Neely had a long history of mental illness and had a number of prior arrests, together with one from 2021 when he socked an older lady within the head, severely injuring her and touchdown himself in jail for greater than a 12 months.