Jury finally seated in Daniel Penny NYC chokehold case, including straphangers whove witnessed outbursts on subway

A jury was seated Wednesday in former Marine Daniel Penny’s subway chokehold trial — with the majority of jurors saying they’ve had first-hand experience with someone acting erratically on the rails.The seven women and five men are now tasked with deciding whether to convict Penny, 25, of killing Jordan Neely, a homeless man who some witnesses said was “insanely threatening,” on a crowded subway train in May 2023.He faces up to 15 years in prison.They include three straphangers who say they’ve been harassed on the transit system — and nine New Yorkers who raised their hands when a judge asked them if they’ve seen someone have an “outburst” on the subway.One woman, who lives in Greenwich Village and was chosen Wednesday, said a man once yelled and swore at her and her friend on a subway car.Also selected were an Upper West Side paralegal whose father served in the Israeli military and who rides the subway five days a week, a Murray Hill corporate lawyer, and an Upper West Side retiree who moved to the city from Nebraska.The 12 panelists, plus four alternates, were chosen after a two-week process that ended with some fiery moments in court Wednesday in the already highly charged case — such as when a Manhattan prosecutor accused Penny’s lawyers of illegally aiming to oust prospective jurors of color from the case.Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran ripped Penny’s lawyers, Steven Raiser and Thomas Kenniff, for using eight of their nine no-questions-asked juror challenges on “people of color.”Kenniff shot back that the suggestion that their juror strikes were racially motivated was “outrageous” and pointed out that one of the jurors selected for the case is a “male black juror.”Justice Maxwell Wiley ultimately allowed the strikes to stand after asking Kenniff to provide other rationales for why the jurors were stricken from the case.Yoran brought up the issue again, also unsuccessfully, after Kenniff and Raiser used another str...

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Publisher: New York Post

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