New York City Marine veteran Daniel Penny sat down with Judge Jeanine Pirro for a powerful first interview since jurors found him not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely.
“He was just threatening to kill people,” Penny said in a preview clip that aired on “The Five” Tuesday. “He was threatening to go to jail forever, go to jail for the rest of his life, and now I’m on the ground with him. I’m on my back in a very vulnerable position…If I’d just let him go, now I’m on my back and he can just turn around and start doing what he said – to me…killing, hurting.”
Penny was arrested in May 2023 nearly two weeks after he was questioned and released following a deadly encounter with Neely, who was high on drugs and threatening to kill people on a Manhattan F train when the 26-year-old architecture student grabbed him in a headlock from behind.
Penny described himself as a non-confrontational person. He said all the attention he’s received since the incident – strong praise from some, demonization from others – makes him uncomfortable.
“I didn’t want any attention or praise, and I still don’t,” he said. “The guilt I would’ve felt if someone did get hurt, if he did do what he was threatening to do, I would never be able to live with myself. And I’ll take a million court appearances and people calling me names and people hating me just to keep one of those people from getting hurt, or killed.”
