Daniel Penny's chokehold manslaughter trial set back by 'nightmare' jury selection

A transgression proceedings to find the destiny of a Marine seasoned who killed a homeless achromatic antheral by placing him successful a chokehold connected a bid is being held up by a nightmarish assemblage enactment process.

Daniel Penny, 26, will look a assemblage of his peers in a mammoth proceedings expected to instrumentality six weeks, to find whether helium is blameworthy of negligent homicide and manslaughter.

He placed Jordan Neely, 30, successful a chokehold connected a New York City subway successful May 2023 successful an effort to subdue the Michael Jackson impersonator.

Neely had been behaving erratically connected the train and, according to Penny, threatening those astir him. He inactive had a pulse erstwhile archetypal responders arrived and issued a dose of Narcan, which is usually utilized to dainty cause overdoses.

The incidental divided the federation and sparked wide debate, making it each the much important for the Manhattan Supreme Court to prime a neutral 12-person assemblage panel.

The assemblage enactment process successful this lawsuit has been agelong and drawn out, already extending beyond a week and without a azygous locked-in juror to amusement for it.

An estimated 450 New Yorkers were called into the courtroom past week arsenic Judge Maxwell Wiley tried to weed retired candidates who couldn't beryllium considered based connected scheduling availability.

About 149 imaginable jurors were asked to instrumentality for further questioning, astatine which constituent Judge Wiley reportedly said: 'If you enactment for an hourly wage, and you cognize your leader won't wage you for much than 3 absent days, fto america cognize now.' 

The authorities of New York pays jurors $40 a time for their service, and the instrumentality states employers lone person to wage for 3 days worthy of assemblage duty.

On a proceedings anticipated to past six weeks, the tribunal has indicated it volition instrumentality into information whether a person's information connected the assemblage would outgo them money.

While a imaginable juror's race, age, sex and socioeconomic presumption are communal considerations successful trials, successful this case, a person's usage of the subway and experiences connected nationalist transport volition besides beryllium interrogated and analyzed. 

The emergence of the 'work from home' civilization since the Covid pandemic has besides constricted however often galore New Yorkers usage the subway.

Of the 20 imaginable jurors who underwent a 2nd circular of questioning connected Friday, astir said they utilized the subway astatine slightest occasionally. Many said they'd besides seen strangers person outbursts portion transiting. 

The radical was divided connected whether they'd ever felt threatened oregon unsafe by strangers' behavior.

They were besides questioned astir whether they had ever served successful the military, taken self-defense classes oregon had immoderate acquisition with intelligence illness, cause maltreatment oregon homelessness.

Four were formally excused from the trial, portion the remainder are inactive nether consideration. 

More prospective jurors returned connected Monday to acquisition the aforesaid enactment of questioning. 

Judge Wiley hopes to person locked successful the 12-person assemblage by the extremity of this week, paving the mode for the proceedings to statesman adjacent week. 

Penny faces up to 19 years down bars if convicted connected some counts.

He maintains his innocence.