Former prosecutor with the New York district attorney’s office, Elliott Felig, joined “Sunday Night in America” host Trey Gowdy to discuss the legal implications of the case involving Marine veteran Daniel Penny and Jordan Neely. Felig called the case, “not the usual” second-degree manslaughter case.
Penny is currently being charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Jordan Neely, over the May 1 incident on a New York City subway train. The Marine veteran asserted in an interview with the New York Post, that the incident in question “had nothing to do with race” and was “deeply saddened” by Neely’s death.
Felig highlighted the prosecution’s burden to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Penny acted recklessly, created a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death and consciously chose to disregard that risk.
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“The prosecutors may point to Mr. Penny’s background in the military and say he knew or should have known that if a chokehold went on for this long, it was more likely to cause death and that maybe he was justified initially, but he wasn’t justified to go on for as long as he did,” Felig said.
Gowdy noted how articles refer to Mr. Penny as a veteran and Mr. Neely as homeless. Adding that “ordinarily,” “neither one of those facts would be relevant,” but that in this case Penny’s training in the military “could theoretically be relevant.”