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Notes -
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/12/us/jordan-neely-daniel-penny-new-york-subway-death-charge/index.html
Daniel Penny, a 24-year old Marine, turned himself to police after being charged with 2nd degree manslaughter for the killing of Jordan Neely. It looks like I was initially wrong. I said that drugs may have played a role given that the original NYTs story, which I replied to, from a week ago said that Neely had been choked for only 2-3 minutes and released and was unresponsive. The updated story is that he was choked out for much longer, as long as 15 minutes, which would have def. been lethal, and the video is pretty bad.
So retract my original argument in which I posit drugs played a role. This is why you should always wait until you have all the information before forming an opinion. I didn't think the story would blow up like it did. I just assumed it was some random altercation. The video is why it went so viral. I think Penny is not without some guilt here. Keeping someone in a choke for so long is going to end in death. It's likely Neely was not rendered unconscious near-instantly from blood loss to the brain, such as from a sleeper hold as I assumed from the original story (I assumed Penny put Neely in a hold, and then Neely went limp in 20-30 seconds and did not come back), but far worse, had been suffocated to death, like being held underwater because his windpipe was restricted. That's why he was flailing around. It would have been more humane had Penny just shot him although that would have carried a worse charge.
A second degree manslaughter conviction is not that bad. only max 15 years for killing someone, and with parole Penny may only spend 5 years, which is a pretty lenient sentence for killing a guy, and not even in self defense or accident. By comparison, Ross Ulbricht faces multiple life sentences despite not killing anyone. I cannot say Penny is not without some blame in this matter. But In Penny's defense, the police took too long to come, and despite Marine training he and his accomplices didn't know what else to do.
I think he might be guilty of going too far. I expect a hung jury because these cases haven’t been working in NYC.
I think the bigger question is what should we be doing with people like Neely? He’s obviously a net negative utilitarian value on society harassing people all day with a potential to have a bad moment and throw someone in front of a train.
Just locking him in a cell seems a little mean and drastically increases his suffering. My solution sounds a little like slavery where we put people on a farm with supervision. He gets to do a little work like taking off vegetables etc. But is removed from society.
Might even be acquittal rather than a hung jury. Bernhard Goetz -- who was pretty messed up himself and did his own case a lot of harm, including fleeing the scene, destroying evidence, bragging about how he wanted to make the people he shot suffer and claiming he said "You seem to be alright, here's another" before firing his last shot -- was acquitted of all but weapons violations. And Penny didn't use a weapon and seems to at least be sensible enough to do his talking through his lawyers.
He might, but most of the damage to Penny's reputation has already been done, and a felony conviction isn't going to mean much given that. If I'm his attorney I'm taking any deal that allows him to avoid prison time. This incident is going to follow him around regardless of what happens, so an acquittal doesn't really give him that much of an advantage over a plea to a lesser charge. The DA has already charged so low that they're not particularly worried about public reaction and it's well within the ballpark of being able to avoid jail time. No need to tempt fate for the sake of principle.
What damage? Outside of New York most people will forget about him pretty quickly. Within New York, his reputation will likely remain decidedly mixed. A felony conviction is more than damage to reputation; it legally disqualifies you from many jobs and positions. And even those it doesn't, it's a bad thing to have and many people will not hire felons.
Second degree manslaughter is a class C felony carrying a up to 15 year prison term; the classes range from A down to E.
Apparently he's working his way through college as a bartender -- the incident could be a benefit for a bartender job, but probably not for whatever he's up to at college.
He could maybe reenlist, depending what he pleads to?
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