A crowdfunding campaign supporting the legal defense fund for former Marine Daniel Penny, who was charged in the death of a homeless man on the New York City subway, has surged to more than $1.5 million in a few days.
His lawyers, Thomas Kenniff and Steven Kaiser, launched the campaign on the crowdfunding site GiveSendGo last week, saying that Penny was only “protecting individuals” on a subway train from what they described as an assailant, who later died. Penny, 24, was arraigned Friday on one count of second-degree manslaughter for allegedly fatally choking 30-year-old Jordan Neely.
According to prosecutors, they said that Neely—who has a lengthy criminal history and was described as homeless—was “making threats and scaring passengers.” In New York state, a conviction for second-degree manslaughter can result in a prison sentence of up to 15 years….