Disclaimer: It is impossible for me to be objective about the Marines, and thus I am hard pressed even to try to see the “justice” in the prosecution of Marine sergeant Daniel Penny for acting as the very definition of what we think of as a good Samaritan on the subway in New York City — and, judging by the statements of those he protected, maybe even saving those on the train from the lunatic Jordan Neely.
This is written as the defense begins its case in what is clearly to me a persecution, with clear and distinct racial overtones. I will look at Sgt. Penny and his background of defending his country; the “victim,” a non-white person alleged to have been choked to death by Sgt. Penny; and the trial thus far.
Daniel Penny, 26, is a native of West Islip on Long Island and signed up for the Marines upon completion of high school. Witnesses called by the defense, including his sister, described him as “kind” and “peaceful.” His sister expressed surprise that he joined the Marines because “he was a very calm, soft-spirited person.” But it wasn’t completely surprising, because “he was always patriotic, and men in our family served.” One article noted, in connection with the family tradition of serving the country in uniform, “Penny, whose grandfather served in the US Navy and uncles in the Merchant Marines, was a star lacrosse player at West Islip High School.”
His mother testified that he was studying architecture at New York City Tech, working nights at a restaurant, and teaching swimming lessons at a gym in Manhattan.
He served in the Marines for four years and was deployed twice, being promoted to the rank of sergeant and the head of a water rescue squad. He received an honorable discharge. Several of his fellow Marines testified at the trial, describing him in the following terms:
Penny’s platoon sergeants took the stand, telling the jury about the Marine Corps values — honor, courage and commitment — explaining if you don’t uphold those values, you won’t get promoted.
Penny’s attorney asked one Marine veteran if Penny had a reputation “of a calm and peaceful person.”
“Absolutely,” he said, also noting Penny received a humanitarian service medal for hurricane relief work.
“You have to be someone who displays empathy above reproach,” he said.
Another Marine said that if you “give him a task, I know it’s going to be completed and done right.”
Jordan Neely was a homeless man who had been arrested 42 times for petty larceny, theft, and unprovoked assaults on women in the subways. He was by all accounts well known to law enforcement officials in the subway system as an abuser of K-2, a synthetic marijuana, and involved in many previous incidents on subway trains similar to this one. Another article noted this background:
Neely’s aunt told The Post that he became a “complete mess” following the brutal murder of his mother in 2007. She noted he was schizophrenic and suffered from PTSD and depression.
“The whole system just failed him. He fell through the cracks of the system,” Carolyn Neely said.
A forensic psychiatrist who examined thousands of pages of Neely’s medical records also testified, over the strenuous objections of the D.A.’s office. The impact of his testimony showed why they were so desperate to keep his evidence from the jury:
The mental health breakdowns included delusions that the rapper Tupac Shakur was using him to “change the world” and that he heard the “devil’s voice,” said Dr. Alexander “Sasha” Bardey.
“Neely had a documented history of paranoid schizophrenia,” which “impacts less than 1% of the population and can lead to hallucinations, delusions and false ideas that are impossible for the afflicted person to shake, Bardey said. He testified that he’s worked with hundreds of schizophrenia patients and found Neely’s case to be among the worst.”
As to the trial and especially the jury, here, for what it’s worth, coming from one who tried many jury trials to a verdict, is a brief summary of what I have learned.
Sgt. Penny’s attorneys seem to be extremely well prepared — the absolute key to an acquittal — and are clearly on top of all challenges thrown at them by the lawyers from Alvin Bragg’s office, who are conducting themselves pretty much as one would expect from members of the Bar who would work for that disgrace to the Rule of Law. The judge strikes me, from reading some of the testimony and objections online, as fair. However, all else pales in importance compared to the role played by the twelve citizens who will actually decide the case: the jury.
This jury is a most interesting study and is one of those rare groups that is truly a cross-section of the community of citizens who ride these trains every day to and from work and are thus uniquely qualified, as no other group of people would be, to mentally place themselves in that subway car and feel the terror when this madman started screaming about being willing to die and that someone was going to die today.
Here is an examination of the questionnaires jurors are required to fill out before being considered for jury duty which you are unlikely to see in the corporate media.
Juror #1 “has seen outbursts on the subway before” and “feels apprehensive about being physically threatened.”
Juror #4 “has witnessed subway outbursts and has felt personally targeted.”
Juror #5 “has witnessed outbursts and has felt personally targeted.”
Juror #6’s “daughter was once assaulted in Times Square.”
Juror #7 “has seen outbursts.”
Juror #9’s husband “survived a street mugging … and said ‘Yes, of course’ she has witnessed subway outbursts.”
Juror #10 is a “woman who endured harassment on a near-empty subway car.”
Juror #11 “survived a robbery four years ago … he said he has witnessed outbursts.”
Juror #12 “has seen outbursts.”
Although no one, especially no one with actual jury trial experience, would even venture a guess as to how this jury will decide the issue of Sgt. Penny’s guilt or innocence, I believe that most experienced lawyers with that kind of background would agree that this is, quite simply, the best possible panel of jurors Sgt. Penny could have dreamed of.
There is a time-honored old phrase that exemplifies the pride the Marines have of their service in the Corps: “Once a Marine, always a Marine.”
Sgt. Daniel Penny is the living, breathing personification of this credo, and what he did on that subway train that day was a perfect example of the “honor, courage, and commitment” he was taught in his training.
As despicable as Alvin Bragg’s persecution of President Trump was, in my opinion, what he has done to this proud Marine is an outrage and a disgrace to the Rule of Law.
We can only pray that the jury, or perhaps just one of them, as that is all it will take, will make the right decision and give this Marine his freedom back.
Semper Fi, Sgt. Penny! Godspeed!
Pxfuel.
