Mayor Eric Adams mentioned Jordan Neely “should not have had to die,” however that he respects the choice of a Manhattan jury to acquit Daniel Penny. Monday, Dec. 9, 2024.
Credit score: Ed Reed/Mayoral Images Workplace.
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Hours after a Manhattan jury acquitted Daniel Penny Monday of prison costs for the choking loss of life of homeless Black man Jordan Neely on an F Prepare final yr, Mayor Eric Adams mentioned that Neely “should not have had to die” however that he respects the jury’s choice.
Adams, throughout his weekly off-topic media briefing on Dec. 9, famous that Neely shares a primary title along with his personal son — Jordan Coleman — as an example what he noticed as his connection to the incident. He then appeared guilty Neely’s loss of life on a failing psychological well being care system at each the town and state ranges — as Neely suffered from psychological sickness and had cycled out and in of psychiatric care for a few years earlier than his loss of life.
“These incidents that happen in the city are not only professional, but they’re personal, and we take that with us. Jordan should not have had to die,” Adams mentioned. “A jury of his peers heard the case, saw all of the facts, saw all of the evidence, and made a decision. I join DA [Alvin] Bragg in stating that I respect the process.”
The mayor’s feedback got here not lengthy after the jury discovered Penny “not guilty” of a criminally negligent murder cost.
Daniel Penny leaving a Manhattan Felony Court docket room after being acquitted on Dec. 9, 2024 within the loss of life of Jordan Neely.Photograph by Lloyd Mitchell
The jury cleared Penny of that cost on Monday morning after Choose Maxwell Wiley had dismissed a second and extra severe manslaughter cost towards him on Friday. The choose dismissed that rely as a result of the jury had deadlocked on a verdict following over three days of deliberations.
Penny was on trial for a Might 1, 2023 incident — caught on a viral video — wherein he positioned Neely in a chokehold that the town Medical Examiner’s workplace discovered to be deadly. He argued that he was appearing in self-defense as Neely was behaving erratically and threatening in direction of the opposite passengers within the subway automobile.
The case turned a flashpoint, representing variations in race, class and the right way to confront these present process psychiatric episodes on the town’s subways. It additionally raised questions of whether or not New Yorkers ought to preemptively take issues into their very own fingers in the event that they understand somebody to be a risk.
Within the weeks instantly following Neely’s loss of life, Mayor Adams confronted warmth over not calling for Penny to be charged. On the time, Adams gave a prolonged tackle calling for extra structural adjustments to New York’s psychological well being care system that didn’t point out Penny by title.
Jordan Neely impersonating Michael Jackson earlier than his loss of life.GoFundMe/Carolyn Neely
The mayor additionally sought to make clear his feedback final week that Penny did “what we should have done as a city” in his interplay with Neely.
“We should have been standing up for those passengers,” Adams mentioned. “That’s what we should have done for the city. And standing up for those passengers [means addressing] the mental health crisis in this city and not just wait for incidents to happen. And the determination that he stood uprightly or wrongfully, that came in front of a jury of his peers.”
Adams additionally indicated that he doesn’t consider the decision will encourage extra New Yorkers who encounter these they understand as threats on the subways to take issues into their very own fingers, as Penny did.
“I think that oftentimes, people make these decisions when they are in the midst of it, and there’s a desire of New Yorkers to help out those in need, and there’s a desire of New Yorkers to always respond when they believe it’s necessary,” he mentioned. “And I don’t think that’s going to change in any way.”
Nonetheless, Neil Berry, a pacesetter with the left-wing group Vocal NY, mentioned Adams’ and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s tough-on-crime rhetoric led Penny to put Neely in a chokehold.
“This is just a continuous failure to recognize Jordan Neely as a human being. Instead of protecting vulnerable people – and Jordan Neely certainly was one – the mayor and the governor have created a level of pessimism and fear that fosters vigilante justice,” Berry mentioned in a press release. “This decision sets the stage for this to happen again: for more homeless people, or even just loud kids, to be shot or killed because they are perceived to be potential threats.”
