Fate of Daniel Penny, On Trial for Death of Michael Jackson Impersonator, Could Hinge on the Word ‘Homicide’

The defense and prosecution fought over the utterance in court of the word ‘homicide’, which jurors could misunderstand to mean ‘murder’.

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Daniel Penny walks out of the courtroom at Manhattan Criminal Court on November 12, 2024 at New York City. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

The word ‘homicide’ ratcheted up tensions between the defense and the prosecution in the trial of Daniel Penny, the Marine veteran charged with causing the death of a Michael Jackson impersonator, Jordan Neely, on a New York subway car last year. 

The defense had brought a medical expert to the witness stand, a forensic pathologist named Satish Chundru, who is based in Texas, and who, as the Sun reported, testified that he believed Neely did not die from lack of oxygen,as a New York City medical examiner had ruled, after Mr. Penny held him in a chokehold.

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