Daniel Penny’s trial, now reaching its electrifying conclusion, has fully captured the nation’s imagination. The heroic former marine’s unjust persecution lies at the three-way intersection of two-tiered double-standards; a bizarre, funhouse-mirror distortion of racial grievance politics; and the moral sinkhole swallowing New York’s state’s justice system. It raises profound questions about civilization’s will to continue existing. Yesterday saw a thrilling twist in the Danny Penny story. Shortly after C&C predicted it yesterday, the jury declared a deadlock. The judge’s shockingly unfair response was reported in a Washington Post story confusingly headlined, “
Manslaughter charge in Daniel Penny trial dismissed, jury resumes next week.”
Props to the courtroom sketch artist for carefully recording Juror No. 2’s double mask situation.
Manhattan Attorney General Alvin Bragg and his team of prosecutors filed two counts against Daniel Penny, after the courageous veteran briefly threw a headlock around chronic offender, drug addict, and domestic terrorist Jordan Neely, to hold him from hurting innocent passengers on their shared subway car. By the way, none of those facts have ever been disputed.
The state’s two counts included Count one, now dismissed, for manslaughter. Remaining Count two is for negligent homicide. Both crimes involve
accidentally killing someone. Manslaughter offers a higher sentence —25 years— but requires proof of aggressive recklessness. It is often charged, for instance, in fatal DUI cases.
Negligent homicide is a lesser offense needing proof only of dangerous carelessness, like leaving a drunk, 86-year-old congresswoman in a hot car. Under New York Law, negligent homicide carries a maximum sentence of only four years. (Still far too long, but not long enough for some New York leftists.)
As predicted, yesterday morning the jury issued its note declaring a deadlock — but
on Count I only. Because they didn’t also declare a deadlock on Count II, the judge and Bragg’s prosecutors had a last-ditch chance to dream up a creative and almost certainly unconstitutional solution.
Facing the jury’s deadlock declaration on Count I, Bragg’s prosecutors essentially said fine. We’ll just
dismiss Count I and bingo, bango, bongo, problem solved. No more deadlock. Ta-da!
They can’t deadlock Count I because we dismissed it first.
Danny’s lawyers hotly objected. They rightly argued that, if this tactic works, prosecutors will
always overcharge cases, knowing they can just dismiss any counts that offend the jury if a deadlock looms. But the judge overruled them, deciding instead to breathe new life into the dying case by giving the jury the weekend to cool off and ordering them to start re-deliberating again on Monday morning. This time, on Count II only.
It was absurd. The judge’s decision transformed the case into a legal and procedural train wreck, as well as a mockery of justice.
The biggest problem arose from
the good reason the jury only declared a deadlock on Count I. Everyone involved understands why. Only we and the public remain in the dark, thanks to useless corporate media.
The
reason the jury only declared a Count I deadlock is that the jury instructions carefully and explicitly say the jurors must
first decide Count I and
only then move on to Count II. Carefully reading the jury instructions, the jury logically concluded that, since they were deadlocked on Count I, they
could not move on to Count II. The instructions won’t let them.
According to reports on X —
I couldn’t find any part of the transcript in corporate media— prosecutor Dafna Yoran (
MUST be a fake name) whined to the judge, “It would be a crazy result to have a hung jury just because they can't move on to the second count!” Here is Karen, I mean Dafna:
According to other reports, Judge Maxwell Wiley responded, "I am taking a chance and granting the People's motion" to dismiss Count I and let the jury consider Count II anyway.
Taking a chance?? He’s taking a chance all right.
I’m not a criminal lawyer, and I don’t practice in New York. But to my legal eye, what the judge did yesterday was
verbally rewrite the jury instructions. He told the jury they should move on to Count II, without deciding Count I, even though the jury instructions
do not allow that. To me, this seems like a wild travesty of justice and an unforgivable violation of Penny’s due process.
In short, judges can’t just change the rules in midstream to suit their own personal bias or political agenda. I get that, once Count I was dismissed, the instructions fouled everything up, since Dafna never imagined this possible outcome. Well, too bad. The prosecutors should have requested more flexible jury instructions.
In short, any confusion over the jury instructions was created
by the prosecutors when they dismissed Count I. It’s not
Danny’s fault. The judge’s mistake is so awful and so obvious it makes me wonder whether the judge is secretly trying to
help Danny, by sabotaging the case with reversible error. Or maybe he panicked.
Either way, that’s how
technically bad his decision was.
This jury is smarter than the judge. They won’t take the bait. I bet they will just deadlock again. They’ll deadlock the less serious Count II. (Deadlock, rather than acquittal, seems inevitable, most likely thanks to the looney double-masked juror.) For several reasons, it looks like this jury has a strong foreman, and they already deadlocked on Count I.
Meanwhile, as the case continues to curry the country’s fears, hopes, and dreams of justice, Fox ran an encouraging story yesterday headlined, “
Daniel Penny to be tapped for Congressional Gold Medal by House GOP lawmaker.” The sub-headline added, “Mr. Penny bravely stood in the gap to defy this corrupt system and protect his fellow Americans, says Rep. Eli Crane.”
Whether or not the excellent resolution ultimately passes, and they
should pass it, it’s still a bat-signal to Danny, from the people:
we see you and we get it.
Stay frosty, marine.
Finally, the WaPo’s story’s comments were very encouraging. Comments from WaPo’s far-left readers are running about ten-to-one in Penny’s favor. Assuming the jury is of similar composition (comparing WaPo readers to New Yorkers seems fair) Danny Penny is in great shape.
A trifecta of game-changing stories: Daniel Penny's astonishing trial twist; damning 60-page non-attendance report tanks deep-state workforce; new detrans lawsuit targets top trans doctor; and more.
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