“A jury of his peers heard the case, saw all the facts and all the evidence, and made a decision. And I join DA Braggs in stating that I respect the process.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Monday, following the issuing of a not-guilty verdict by a Manhattan jury in the case of Daniel Penny, said that he respects "the process" and said that the mental health system failed Jordan Neely, the man who died after being placed in a chokehold in a subway car after witnesses said that Neely was threatening them.
Adams said that "Jordan should not have had to die, and I strongly believe, as I’ve been stating probably from day one, we have a mental health system that is broken. When you have someone repeatedly going through that system, that’s a signature of failure and we need help in Albany and in the city council." Adams continued, "We can’t sit back and mourn the loss of someone that is caught up in this system when we’re not taking the action every day."
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View on XHe added that "a jury of his peers heard the case, saw all the facts and all the evidence, and made a decision. And I join DA Braggs in stating that I respect the process."
On Friday, the second-degree manslaughter charge was dropped against Penny after the jury remained deadlocked. The jury returned on Monday to deliberate the second count, criminally negligent homicide, and returned the not guilty verdict just hours later. In the wake of the verdict, Neely's father claimed that the system is "rigged," and Black Lives Matter of Greater New York co-founder Hawk Newsome said "we need some black vigilantes" in the wake of the Penny verdict.
In the week before the verdict, Adams said, "We’re now on the subway where we’re hearing someone talking about hurting people, killing people. You have someone [Penny] on that subway who was responding, doing what we should have done as a city."
Adams added at the time, "Those passengers were afraid."
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