The trial of former U.S. Marine Daniel Penny for the May 2023 killing of Jordan Neely, a Black man in mental anguish, in the New York City subway ended on Monday, December 9, with Penny acquitted of all charges and walking free. Penny put Jordan Neely in a deadly chokehold for six minutes… including after Jordan had gone completely limp. What was Jordan’s “crime”? Familiar to many NYC subway riders as a Michael Jackson impersonator, Jordan Neely was in emotional distress and crying out, “I don’t have food, I don’t have a drink, I’m fed up … I don’t mind going to jail and getting life in prison.” For this, Penny, along with others who helped pin Jordan down, choked the life out of this human being in a modern-day lynching. In the face of protests, Penny was charged with second-degree manslaughter, which carries a maximum 15-year sentence, and some lesser charges. The trial of Penny on these charges has been taking place in New York City.
The jury deliberated on whether to find Penny guilty of these charges, and just this past week, the jury announced it was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on the most serious charge of second-degree manslaughter. The judge then dismissed that charge at the request of the prosecutor, which meant that the only charge against Penny for the jury to decide on was the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide with a maximum of four years in prison. Now Penny has been cleared of even this lesser charge!
This is outrage on top of intolerable outrage… and lays bare the actual oppressive nature of this system as a capitalist-imperialist dictatorship that rules over the people. Watch this video—“The NYC Subway Lynching of Jordan Neely…& Capitalist Dictatorship” from The RNL—Revolution, Nothing Less!—Show, which was aired after Jordan Neely’s murder and shortly before Penny was charged with manslaughter.