Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has been aggressively pushing for the media to note that if convicted of second-degree manslaughter at trial, Marine veteran Daniel Penny faces no mandatory minimum prison term, Penny’s lawyers told the judge this week.
The 26-year-old aspiring architect would face a maximum punishment of 15 years behind bars, if convicted for Jordan Neely’s death on a Manhattan F train.
Neely rushed onto a subway car with women and children, shouted that someone would “die today,” and warned that he wasn’t afraid to go to prison for life. Penny grabbed him in a chokehold or headlock, took him to the ground, and he later died.
Outside experts said there are a few possible explanations regarding what Bragg’s office described as “something factual for context.”
“Defense lawyers are barred from mentioning potential sentences at trial — the reasoning being that it would be an attempt to seek sympathy from jurors who then may reach a verdict based on something other than the facts, In other words, ‘He may be guilty, but 10 years is too much time,’” said Danielle Iredale, who previously represented New York subway vigilante Bernhard Goetz in a marijuana case. “Here, there is a hypocrisy to the DA’s messaging. In attempting to publish the fact that there is no statutory mandatory minimum sentence, they are essentially saying, ‘It’s OK to convict, he may not go to the jail!’”
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