Jordan Neely Michael Jackson Impersonator dies at age 30

Penny Hires Jury Consultant Who Aided O.J. Simpson and Kyle Rittenhouse

The courtroom presence of Jo-Ellan Dimitrius illustrates the pressure on the 12 people who will decide if Daniel Penny is guilty of manslaughter for choking a man on a New York subway train.

As lawyers for Daniel Penny, a former Marine accused of choking a homeless man to death in a New York subway car, vetted jurors Friday, a woman sat at a courtroom table, leaning toward the people being questioned and scribbling in a notebook.

The woman, Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, a jury consultant for the defendant, has been in Manhattan criminal court every day as scores of prospective jurors arrive for selection in a case that has divided New Yorkers from the moment the video of Mr. Penny holding the homeless man, Jordan Neely, on the subway floor ricocheted around the internet in May 2023.

However, Mr. Penny, who faces charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, is far from her most high-profile client.

Ms. Dimitrius, whose clients have spanned the spectrum from celebrities to corporations to the president of Brazil, worked with lawyers for Kyle Rittenhouse, who in 2021 was acquitted of killing two people and wounding another at a Black Lives Matter rally in Wisconsin. In 1994, O.J. Simpson’s team hired her to help select a favorable jury. Before that, she worked with defense lawyers in three cases that arose from the beating of Rodney G. King by Los Angeles police officers in 1991, an episode that set off rioting.

The presence of Ms. Dimitrius highlights the charged atmosphere surrounding Mr. Penny’s trial, and the intense scrutiny trained on those who will decide it, a group that a judge ruled this week would remain anonymous to the public.

Mr. Penny has said that he restrained Mr. Neely, who had a history of mental illness, after he boarded an F train and threatened riders. While some New Yorkers saw Mr. Penny’s efforts that May 1 afternoon as acts of aggression that needed to be swiftly prosecuted, others saw them as the embodiment of transit riders’ fears and frustrations.

The trial, which began on Monday, may last through Thanksgiving. The first step is the winnowing of hundreds of prospective jurors down to the group of 12 that will serve. Every day, the prosecution and the defense team will ask the potential jurors questions, slowly and carefully making their selections. The final jury will then hear testimony and view evidence before retreating to a room closed off from the heated rhetoric that has surrounded the case from the start.

In the weeks after the killing, Mr. Penny was embraced by right-wing politicians and groups. A fund-raising campaign on GiveSendGo, a self-described Christian crowdfunding site, has raised over $3 million for his legal defense as of Saturday.

Mr. Penny also received support from Representative Matt Gaetz, a firebrand Florida Republican, and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who likened Mr. Penny to the Bible’s good Samaritan. The case became a staple feature of Fox News.

In the trial’s first week, protesters have been drawn to its downtown courthouse, as have members of the National Action Network, a group founded by the Rev. Al Sharpton.

“We’re here to stand up for justice for Mr. Neely as he can’t do it for himself,” Alvin Ponder, vice president of the network’s New York chapter, said on Wednesday.

“I hope Mr. Penny is convicted by a jury of his peers, who are being selected right now,” he said, adding: “His conviction and a good sentence — that’s about all we can do.”

Ms. Dimitrius has a lot of experience with helping defendants in similarly charged cases find jurors who can look past controversy.

Jury consultants help their clients assess prospective jurors, determining if they are likely to be receptive and sympathetic to their side’s arguments. A spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office said that it had not hired such a consultant.

Lawyers and prospective jurors have been kept apart from reporters. On Friday, Randy Peukert, a spokesman for Ms. Dimitrius’s Arizona-based firm, Dimitrius & Associates, confirmed that she was helping Mr. Penny’s team, but did not answer any further questions.

Thomas A. Kenniff, Mr. Penny’s lawyer, said Saturday that jury consultants had become increasingly common in major litigation.

“Ms. Dimitirus’s reputation in the field is second to none,” he said. “So in a situation like this, we want to put the best team together to give our client the best defense.”

Ms. Dimitrius is a graduate of Scripps College and Claremont Graduate School, where she studied sociology, psychology and criminology, according to her website. She helped pick her first jury in 1984. Since then, she has consulted in over 1,000 trials and helped choose more than 600 juries. She has worked for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s leftist president, and consulted for George Floyd’s legal team in a civil suit against the City of Minneapolis, her website says.

In preparing for Mr. Simpson’s sensational trial in 1994 on charges that he had killed his ex-wife and her friend, Ms. Dimitrius told The Associated Press that it would be impossible to seat jurors without opinions or biases. The challenge, she said, was to make sure those prejudices were more favorable to her client.

“This case is being tried in the press, and a lot of people in the community have formed opinions,” she said. “My job is to help ascertain what kind of biases are there.”

The charged climate around the Penny case has already spilled into the courtroom, where the lawyers, judge and prospective jurors are confronting the possibility of internet-enabled harassment.

One potential juror was excused when she had a panic attack and couldn’t enter the courtroom, the judge overseeing the case, Maxwell T. Wiley, said Thursday.

The day before, another prospective juror told the judge that she was hesitant about serving because she was “nervous.” Justice Wiley asked her to return for another day of selection, at which point he would see how she was feeling.

Dafna Yoran, an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, asked this week that the jury be anonymous. She made her request, she said, “based on prior threats that have been received on this case by all sides.”

Justice Wiley granted her request, ordering that the jurors’ identities be kept secret and that they be identified by number, as they were in former President Donald J. Trump’s criminal trial in New York earlier this year.

“There’s a lot of not just opinions but very, very strong opinions,” Justice Wiley said in court. “There’s been people who have not been afraid to make threats.”

Last year, after grand jurors’ names were listed on an indictment accusing Mr. Trump and 18 others of conspiring to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said that it was investigating online threats against the jurors.

This year, Arthur F. Engoron, a judge presiding over a civil fraud trial of Mr. Trump in Manhattan, had a hoax bomb threat called at his house. The episode occurred just a day after the former president attacked Justice Engoron online. In July, a man in Las Vegas was charged with threatening to kill federal officials, judges and state employees across several states, including the district attorney and the judge involved in Mr. Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan.

In New York State, juries are prohibited from operating in full anonymity; defendants and prosecutors are allowed to know jurors’ names even when they are kept from the public. Usually, judges allow jurors to remain anonymous in this way if a defendant has been shown to be a danger to the jury or judicial system and in high-profile cases.

The first fully anonymous jury in the United States was impaneled in a 1977 federal trial against the head of an illegal narcotics operation in Harlem, according to a report from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

A judge who grants an anonymous jury risks having defense lawyers argue to higher courts that it unfairly prejudiced jurors.

In July, a New York State appeals court overturned a 2023 conviction in a Saratoga County case in which a man was charged with assaulting his former girlfriend and her father. The decision by the judge overseeing the case, James A. Murphy III, to impanel the jury anonymously “was in error,” the appeals court judges wrote.

In April, the appeals court decided that another case in which Justice Murphy had impaneled an anonymous jury should also be reversed, The Times Union reported.

Across the country, anonymous juries are rare, even in cases that involve politicians and corruption, said Chad Lackey, a director at DOAR, a New York City trial-consulting firm. Such cases typically involve a “focal point of outrage,” he said.

“Once you get into the territory that threats are being made, it’s not the potential, it becomes necessary to deal with,” Mr. Lackey said.

Judges have to weigh anonymity against due process, the guarantee of an open trial and how anonymity may prompt jurors to draw unfair conclusions about a defendant’s danger, said Rebecca Roiphe, a professor at New York Law School and a former Manhattan prosecutor.

“It’s something that they should use sparingly, only when it’s absolutely necessary to preserve the integrity of the proceedings or the safety of the jurors,” she said.

www.nytimes.com/2024/10/26/nyregion/daniel-penny-jury-consultant-ny-subway-choking.html

This undated photo shows Jordan Neely as a child.



Jordan Neely briefly lived with his great aunt and other family members in his youth.





Christie Neely was murdered by her boyfriend when he was just 14 years old

Justice for Jordan Neely ?

By Staff

NEW YORK, NY - Jordan Neely's tragic death after being placed in a chokehold by former Marine Daniel Penny on a New York City subway has sparked a contentious debate about homelessness, mental illness, and the city's response to these issues. As the trial for Penny begins, those who knew Neely remember him as a joyous child who loved to dance and sing, and as a teen who struggled deeply after the violent murder of his mother.

Neely's life took a downward turn after his mother's death, leading him to find solace in performing as a Michael Jackson impersonator on the NYC subways. Despite his talents and the joy he brought to commuters, Neely faced significant challenges, including homelessness and mental illness. By the age of 30, he was homeless and experiencing a mental health crisis when he was killed by Penny, who has been charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

Neely's death has led to citywide protests and demands for answers about the city's resources and response to his needs. Reports indicate that Neely had numerous interactions with police and homeless services, yet he remained on a list of high-need individuals at the time of his death. His case highlights the systemic failures in addressing the needs of vulnerable populations.

Neely's story is a poignant reminder of the human lives behind the statistics of homelessness and mental illness. His great aunt, Mildred Mahazu, and friend, Moses Harper, reflect on his life and the systemic issues that contributed to his tragic end. They call for systemic reforms to fix the criminal justice and health care systems, emphasizing that Neely's death was a preventable tragedy.

www.reddingnewsreview.com/justice-for-jordan-neely

Man who filmed Daniel Penny fatally choking Jordan Neely on NYC subway testifies

When a man stuck his hand through the closing door of an uptown F train, squeezed inside, threw his jacket on the ground and started yelling, Juan Alberto Vázquez took out his phone and snapped a photo, he said while testifying in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday.

Vázquez, an independent journalist from Mexico, said it was moments later when he started to film a video after another passenger, Daniel Penny, wrapped his arm around Jordan Neely’s neck and brought him to the floor. Vázquez said in court that he thought the violent encounter was out of the ordinary and should be documented.

“For some reason, I just kept recording,” Vázquez said in Spanish through an interpreter on the second full day of Penny’s criminal trial in Manhattan.

After Vázquez posted his video on social media, the clip spread online, prompting protests and calls to charge Penny, whose identity at the time was unknown. Penny, a 26-year-old former Marine, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the death of Neely, a former Michael Jackson impersonator who had been homeless, had schizophrenia and used synthetic cannabinoids before his death, according to court records.

Defense attorneys say Penny put Neely in a chokehold to subdue him after 30-year-old Neely began yelling threats on the subway. Prosecutors say Penny was well intentioned but went “way too far” and should have known that wrapping his arms around Neely’s neck for about six minutes could kill him.

On Monday, Vázquez and other passengers who were on the train that day described in detail what they saw, heard and felt in the moments before Neely died. Prosecutors also played a 911 call from a passenger and showed cell phone videos that captured parts of the incident, including an extended version of the one Vázquez published on social media.

A teen who was on her way home from school testified that she nervously buried her head in her friend’s chest as Neely yelled that he had no food, no money and didn’t care if he went back to jail. Ivette Rosario, 19, said Neely’s tone scared her, and that she felt like she might pass out.

“I just wanted the doors to open,” she said.

Rosario said she saw Neely stick his hand through the door where she was standing just as the F train was about to pull away, take off what she referred to as a sweater and throw it on the ground. As she fearfully hid her face in her friend’s chest, Rosario said, she heard a boom. Then she saw the two men on the floor, with Penny’s arm wrapped around Neely’s neck.

Jurors watched a minute-long video Rosario recorded on her phone, which showed one of Rosario’s hands shaking as she paced on the platform. In that recording, a woman can be heard saying “he’s dying.” They also listened to the 911 call she placed moments after exiting the train, in which she described what she’d just seen and said the person causing harm was Black. Neely was Black and Penny is white.

Rosario said she described Neely as the aggressor because of his tone when he boarded the train, but that she didn’t see any weapons on him or see him touch anyone. She also said Neely didn’t seem to be yelling at anyone in particular.

Prosecutors also showed an extended version of the video Vázquez posted online. The five-minute recording, filmed partially from the platform at the Broadway-Lafayette station and partially inside the train car, shows Penny underneath Neely, with his left arm wrapped around Neely’s neck. Two men stand on either side of them, one holding Neely’s left hand. In a portion of the clip that hasn’t been published before, Neely uses his free hand to tap the other man on his knee and wave. As that man crouches toward Neely, Penny keeps his arm wrapped around Neely’s neck.

Jurors watched as Neely tried to break free, his sneakers squeaking on the floor of the subway. Vazquez described this to jurors as Neely’s “last effort.” Then, the video shows Neely’s legs stop moving.

A man can be heard in the video urging Penny to let go, because he thinks that Neely has defecated on himself.

“You’re gonna kill him now,” the man says.

That man was Larry Goodson, another passenger on the train that day who testified Monday. He told jurors that his fiancée served in the Marines and that he grew concerned when he saw what looked like the military chokeholds she had described in stories over the years. He said he became particularly worried when he saw what looked like brownness and wetness on Neely’s pants.

Goodson said Penny wouldn’t respond or let go of the chokehold when he warned that Neely might die. Shortly after, Goodson said, he walked away and boarded an uptown D train. He still had to get to work.

gothamist.com/news/man-who-filmed-daniel-penny-fatally-choking-jordan-neely-on-nyc-subway-testifies

Daniel Penny tells police 'I put him out' in never-before-seen video as subway chokehold trial gets underway

Prosecutors said Daniel Penny may be an "honorable veteran" and "nice young man" but he used too much force for too long and was reckless with Jordan Neely's life because "he didn't recognize his humanity," as the highly publicized trial over Neely's death on a New York City subway train got underway Friday. The defense, meanwhile, argued in opening statements that the former Marine stood up to "protect thy neighbor."

Penny is charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide in the May 2023 death of Neely, a homeless man who was acting erratically on a subway car.

"He was aware of the risk his actions would kill Mr. Neely and did it anyway," Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran said of Penny in her opening statement.

"Jordan Neely took his last breaths on the dirty floor of an uptown F train," she told a rapt jury.

Defense attorney Thomas Kenniff countered that Penny sought to protect passengers as Neely's threats echoed through the closed confines of a subway car and he spoke with "unhinged rage."

"This is a case about a young man who did for others what we would want someone to do for us," Kenniff said. "It doesn't make him a hero, but it doesn't make him a killer."

On the first day of the trial, jurors also saw body camera video that had not yet been publicly released of Penny's initial encounter with police, four and a half minutes after letting go of Neely.

Penny 'went way too far,' prosecutor says

Neely entered a moderately crowded subway car at the Second Avenue stop and began making threats about hurting people, scaring many of the passengers, Yoran said.

She pointed at Penny as she told the jury, "This man, took it upon himself to take down Jordan Neely. To neutralize him."

Thirty seconds later, the train arrived at the next station and all the passengers left the train car, except two men who were helping Penny restrain Neely. The prosecutor said Penny hung onto Neely for 51 seconds after Neely's body went limp.

"By doing so, he pushed Mr. Neely to the point of no return," Yoran said. "He left Mr. Neely lying on the floor unconscious and didn't look back."

Penny has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in Neely's death. His attorneys have said Neely was "insanely threatening," but Yoran said Penny's actions were unnecessarily reckless because he continued the chokehold for 5 minutes and 53 seconds after the subway car was empty of passengers. "A grasp that never changed," Yoran called it.

"The defendant did not intend to kill him. His initial intent was even laudable," Yoran said. "But under the law, deadly physical force such as a chokehold is permitted only when it is absolutely necessary and for only as long as is absolutely necessary. And here, the defendant went way too far."

The prosecutor told jurors they would see video of the chokehold.

"You will see Mr. Neely's life being sucked out before your very eyes," Yoran said, appearing to upset one of the jurors who grimaced and briefly shut his eyes.

Penny heard Neely say 'I will kill': Defense attorney

Penny was on the F train headed to swim at a gym when a "seething, psychotic Jordan Neely storms on and announces his presence," Kenniff said in his opening statement. "Neely whips his jacket over his head and slams it to the ground with such force that even those who don't see it hear it."

The defense said things on the train escalated from "concern to fear" as they sought to portray Neely as far scarier than a prosecutor described in her opening statement.

"Neely sets his sights on a bench of female passengers," Kenniff said. "Danny sees a mother barricading her son behind a baby stroller in fear of Mr. Neely."

Penny heard Neely say "I will kill," the defense said, and said there was no opportunity for him to de-escalate or stop Neely from the harm he was threatening.

"What Danny does do is leap into action," Kenniff said.

Borrowing from "a bit" of martial arts training he received in the Marine Corps, Penny put Neely into a chokehold without intending to kill him but, the defense said, to hold him until police arrived.

"His conduct was consistent with someone who values human life and that's why he was trying to protect it so fiercely," the defense attorney said.

Kenniff insisted his client "does not want to use any more force than is necessary," but Neely "aggressively resisted" while in Penny's grip. He said Penny thought Neely, who was unarmed, might have a weapon as he waited for police.

"The evidence will show that this struggle did indeed last between 5 and 6 minutes," but Penny "was not squeezing," Kenniff said.

Instead, the defense suggested Neely's death may have been caused by cardiac arrest, a genetic condition or some other reason that was not asphyxiation. The defense said the risk of Neely's death was not something Penny could have perceived or anticipated.

Body-camera footage shown for 1st time

The first witness, a New York City police officer, was among those who tried unsuccessfully to revive Neely. The officer, Teodoro Tejada, testified that Neely did not have a pulse.

The jury saw the officer's body-worn camera footage that captured the attempts to save Neely and showed his lifeless body on the subway floor. When searched for weapons, the only thing officers found in Neely's pockets was a muffin. Nothing else was found in the jacket, Tejada confirmed.

Penny is heard saying, "I put him out," when the officer asked what happened.

To prosecutors, the footage -- which had not been seen publicly until now -- is evidence Penny disregarded Neely's basic humanity.

Jurors attentively studied the video that shows officers frantically trying to revive Neely. At one point, a juror had her hand over her mouth watching as the camera bounced when Tejada joined the chest compressions. Neely's body is seen splayed on the subway floor, sneakers, jeans and grimy, white T-shirt still on.

On cross-examination, Kenniff asked if the officer responded to any calls "of a white male causing any trouble," which Tejada confirmed he did not. The defense also used Tejada's testimony to suggest to the jury Penny did not behave like a criminal by fleeing the scene.

"Did he appear cooperative?" the lawyer asked.

"Yes," the officer replied.

"It didn't appear that he had anything to hide?" Kenniff asked.

"No," Tejada said.

Protest audible from courtroom

The sounds of a sidewalk protest over the death of Neely were audible in the 13th-floor courtroom ahead of opening statements. Protesters were heard calling Penny a "subway strangler."

Judge Max Wiley said he would instruct jurors to ignore "noise outside the courthouse."

Penny, in a slate blue suit, strode confidently into the courtroom and took his seat at the defense table ahead of opening statements.

The jury of seven women and five men, four of whom are people of color, will be asked to do something prosecutors concede is difficult: convict someone of an unintentional crime.

To convict, prosecutors must prove Penny's use of lethal force was unjustifiable and that Penny acted recklessly and consciously disregarded the substantial risk of putting Neely in the chokehold for so long. Prosecutors do not have to prove Penny intended to kill Neely, which defense attorneys have said Neely did not intend to do.

Wiley denied Penny's bid to dismiss his involuntary manslaughter case in January.

The trial is expected to last between four and six weeks, according to Wiley.

The case has fueled political narratives about urban crime and captivated a city in which the subway is indispensable.

Differing accounts of the incident

While there is no doubt that Penny's actions led to Neely's death on May 1, 2023, witness accounts differ regarding the events that led up to Penny applying the fatal chokehold, according to various sources.

Many witnesses reported that Neely, 30, who was homeless at the time of his death and was known to perform as a Michael Jackson impersonator, had expressed that he was homeless, hungry and thirsty, according to prosecutors. Most of the witnesses also recounted that Neely indicated a willingness to go to jail or prison.

Some witnesses also reported that Neely threatened to hurt people on the train, while others did not report hearing those threats, according to police sources.

Additionally, some witnesses told police that Neely was yelling and harassing passengers on the train. However, others have said that while Neely had exhibited erratic behavior, he had not been threatening anyone in particular and had not become violent, according to police sources who spoke with ABC News following the incident.

According to prosecution court filings, some passengers on the train that day said they didn't feel threatened. One said they weren't "really worried about what was going on," while another called it "like another day typically in New York. That's what I'm used to seeing. I wasn't really looking at it if I was going to be threatened or anything to that nature, but it was a little different because, you know, you don't really hear anybody saying anything like that."

Other passengers, however, described being fearful, according to court filings. One said they "have encountered many things, but nothing that put fear into me like that," while another said Neely was making "half-lunge movements" and coming within a "half a foot of people."

Neely had a documented history of mental health issues and arrests, including alleged instances of disorderly conduct, fare evasion and assault, according to police sources.

Less than 30 seconds after Penny allegedly put Neely into a chokehold, the train arrived at the Broadway-Lafayette Station, according to court records.

"Passengers who had felt fearful on account of being trapped on the train were now free to exit the train. The defendant continued holding Mr. Neely around the neck," said prosecutor Joshua Steinglass in a court filing objecting to Penny's dismissal request.

According to prosecutors, footage of the interaction, which began about two minutes after the incident started, captures Penny holding Neely in the chokehold for about four minutes and 57 seconds on a relatively empty train, with a couple of passengers nearby.

Prosecutors said that about three minutes and 10 seconds into the video, Neely ceases all purposeful movement.

"After that moment, Mr. Neely's movements are best described as 'twitching and the kind of agonal movement that you see around death,'" prosecutors said.

The case is expected to feature testimony of passengers who were aboard the subway at the time, as well as a roughly six-minute video of the chokehold.

Jury to hear eyewitness statements

Before opening statements on Friday, Wiley granted a defense request to allow some of the statements that eyewitnesses to the chokehold made to police that were captured on body-worn cameras.

One witness, a Ms. Rosario, was captured on body-worn camera 15 minutes after the incident aboard the F train.

"I can see most of that statement coming in as an excited utterance," Wiley said.

The judge declined to allow a part of her statement in which an officer is heard asking whether she thought Neely was on drugs.

A Mr. Latimer is captured a minute later and Wiley said his statement is "well within the immediacy of the event" and could be admitted.

"This person displays emotion, excitement as he's describing what happened. It's narrative," Wiley said.

Most of the passengers who were aboard the train and who witnessed the event are expected to testify at trial.

Jury will see evidence that Neely did not have a weapon

The judge also previously ruled that the jury will see evidence that shows Neely was unarmed.

Penny's defense had sought to preclude evidence or testimony about the lack of a weapon recovered from a search of Neely's body but in a written opinion issued Thursday, Wiley said such evidence and testimony is relevant to the case.

"The fact that Mr. Neely was unarmed provides additional relevant information to aid the jury, namely, it clarifies what could have been perceived by someone in the defendant's position," Wiley wrote. "The possibility that a person in the defendant's situation could have been reasonable in mistakenly believing that Mr. Neely had been armed is appropriate for consideration by the jury and well within their capability."

The defense worried that including evidence that Neely was unarmed could bolster sympathy for the victim but Wiley said it would help the jury decide whether Penny's actions were justified.

Penny's lawyers and Neely's family speak ahead of the trial

Members of Neely's family were seated with the spectators for opening statements Friday.

"I loved Jordan. And I want justice for Jordan Neely. I want it today. I want justice for everybody and I want justice for Jordan Neely," his uncle, Christopher Neely, said before entering court.

Prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney's office are expected to concede that Neely may have seemed scary to some subway riders, but will argue Penny continued the chokehold well past the point where Neely stopped moving and posed any kind of threat.

Penny's attorneys have said that they were "saddened at the loss of human life," but that Penny saw "a genuine threat and took action to protect the lives of others," arguing that Neely was "insanely threatening" to passengers aboard the subway train.

While Penny's defense will argue that he had no intent to kill Neely, prosecutor Steinglass has noted that the second-degree manslaughter charge only requires prosecutors to prove Penny acted recklessly, not intentionally.

"We are confident that a jury, aware of Danny's actions in putting aside his own safety to protect the lives of his fellow riders, will deliver a just verdict," Penny's lawyers, Steven Raiser and Thomas Kenniff, said earlier this year, after Penny's request to dismiss the charge was denied.

"This case is simple. Someone got on a train and was screaming so someone else choked them to death," Neely family attorney Donte Mills said in a past statement to ABC News. "Those two things do not and will never balance. There is no justification."

"Jordan had the right to take up his own space. He was allowed to be on that train and even to scream. He did not touch anyone. He was not a visitor on that train, in New York, or in this country," Mills added.



abcnews.go.com/US/daniel-penny-trial-opening-statements-begin-friday/story?id=115349041