XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.usa.republican, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: normal.american.humans.first@splcenter.org   
      
   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.   
      
   "The District Attorney’s efforts to have the jury speculate as to a   
   potential sentence are both improper and misleading," Penny's defense   
   lawyers, Steven Raiser and Thomas Kenniff, told Fox News Digital   
   Wednesday. "While it is technically true that these charges do not carry a   
   mandatory minimum, that is the case with most felonies in New York. It is   
   equally true that the maximum sentence is 15 years in state prison."   
      
   LEAD DANIEL PENNY PRSOECUTOR SECURED LIGHT SENTENCE FOR THUG WHO KILLED   
   87-YEAR-OLD IN ATM ROBBERY   
      
   Penny's defense has raised concerns throughout the trial that the   
   prosecution is overstepping its bounds and unfairly depicting the   
   altercation as something with racial undertones, even though prosecutors   
   have not alleged a hate crime.   
      
   READ ON THE FOX NEWS APP   
      
   "Moreover, the tenacity with which the District Attorney has sought to   
   obtain a conviction against Mr. Penny strongly suggests that they will   
   advocate for a substantial sentence in the event of a guilty verdict," the   
   attorneys said.   
      
   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!’"   
      
   DANIEL PENNY JURORS BEGIN DELIBERATIONS IN JORDAN NEELY SUBWAY CHOKEHOLD   
   TRIAL   
      
   Goetz was involved in one of New York City's most prominent self-defense   
   cases. He shot four teenage muggers with an unlicensed handgun, paralyzing   
   one of them. Jurors found him not guilty of attempted murder, but he spent   
   several months in jail on the illegal firearm charge. Iredale represented   
   him in the 2010s on a low-level pot case that was ultimately dismissed.   
      
   "It’s exceedingly unusual, if not unprecedented, for a prosecutor’s office   
   to use the press to assuage the public’s concern if they were to achieve a   
   conviction," Iredale, who is barred in New York but now practices in San   
   Diego, told Fox News Digital. "This suggests an awareness on the part of   
   the DA’s office that public sentiment is not supportive of this   
   prosecution.  This backpedaling raises a serious question as to whether or   
   not the prosecution even believes they should have brought charges in the   
   first place."   
      
   Bragg could be trying to save face after bringing a case against a man   
   viewed by many of the witnesses as a good Samaritan, according to several   
   legal experts.   
      
   TRAIN HERO ALEK SKARLATOS ON DANIEL PENNY TRIAL: ‘THIS COULD HAPPEN TO   
   YOU’   
      
   "It appears that [the Manhattan DA] is finally reading the room regarding   
   the unpopularity and weakness of this case and may be considering asking   
   the judge for a ‘non-carceral’ sentence in the event of a conviction,"   
   said Paul Mauro, a former NYPD inspector, using a term to describe   
   sentences that don't involve prison time. "And if that's the case, they   
   shouldn't have brought the…case to begin with."   
      
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)