Self-defense or too much force? That's the question for jurors as subway chokehold trial wraps

NEW YORK (AP) — A defense lawyer asked jurors to put themselves in frightened subway riders' shoes Monday at the trial of a Marine veteran charged with choking an irate, homeless man to death after an outburst on a New York underground train.

Prosecutors countered that Daniel Penny was way too forceful and reckless in responding to Jordan Neely.

Both sides gave closing arguments Monday at Penny's trial on manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges. Penny, who gripped Neely’s neck for about six minutes, claims he was defending fellow passengers. He has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say Penny was justified in using some physical force after Neely shouted in a crowded train about being willing to die, willing to go jail or — as Penny and some other passengers recalled — willing to kill. But prosecutors argue that Penny recklessly went way too far in dealing with an unarmed man.

"You obviously cannot kill someone because they are crazy and ranting and looking menacing, no matter what it is that they are saying,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran told jurors Monday.

Defense attorney Steven Raiser asked jurors to imagine they were on that train when Neely got on, “filled with rage and not afraid of any consequences.”

“You’re sitting much as you are now, in this tightly confined space. You have very little room to move and none to run," Raiser told jurors, saying his client “put his life on the line” for strangers.

“Who would you want on the next train with you?” he asked.

Penny's reaction to Neely touched raw nerves and fueled debate about race relations, public safety, urban life and different approaches to crime, homelessness and mental illness.

Some in New York and around the country see Penny, a 26-year-old Marine veteran turned...