{"id":2369753,"date":"2024-11-16T11:20:02","date_gmt":"2024-11-16T16:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/daniel-pennys-trial-draws-parallels-with-40-year-old-trial-that-took-country-by-storm-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-11-16T11:23:30","modified_gmt":"2024-11-16T16:23:30","slug":"daniel-pennys-trial-draws-parallels-with-40-year-old-trial-that-took-country-by-storm-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/daniel-pennys-trial-draws-parallels-with-40-year-old-trial-that-took-country-by-storm-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Penny\u2019s trial draws parallels with 40-year-old trial that took country by storm &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdaniel-pennys-trial-draws-parallels-with-40-year-old-trial-that-took-country-by-storm-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2369753&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The\u2063 article\u200c discusses the trial of Daniel \u2064Penny, which has drawn comparisons \u2064to the \u20641984 trial of\u200c Bernhard Goetz, a case that significantly influenced national conversations about crime\u2064 and self-defense. In 1984, Goetz shot\u200b four teenagers on the New York \u200cCity subway, claiming \u200dself-defense \u2064after being threatened for money. His trial sparked widespread <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-purge-has-begun-where-it-stops-nobody-knows\/\" title=\"The Purge Has Begun. Where It Stops, Nobody Knows.\">media coverage<\/a> and debates \u2062regarding\u200c race and vigilantism, \u200das he became a controversial figure; while some viewed him as a hero \u2063defending himself against crime, \u200cothers criticized \u2064his actions as \u200d<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-talks-like-a-billionaire-construction-worker-south-carolina-gop-chairman\/\" title=\"South Carolina GOP chairman: Trump speaks like a wealthy construction worker\">racially charged violence<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The article highlights \u200bkey differences between the\u200b two cases in terms of\u2063 public perception, legal\u2062 defense strategies, and the \u200drole of race. Goetz&#8217;s defense painted the \u200dteenagers as dangerous predators,\u2063 employing aggressive \u200ctactics to garner sympathy, whereas Penny&#8217;s trial has been marked by a focus on racial\u2062 dynamics\u2014his\u200c defense team claiming\u200d this focus\u2063 undermines his right to a fair trial. The\u2062 piece examines the socio-political context surrounding both incidents, particularly\u2064 how\u2062 rising crime rates shaped public sympathy and legal arguments \u200bduring the trials.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Daniel Penny&rsquo;s trial draws parallels with 40-year-old trial that took country by storm<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_1328569\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p>Nearly 40 years before former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/marine-corps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Marine\">Marine<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/opinion\/beltway-confidential\/3206142\/daniel-penny-trial-could-kill-public-safety\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Daniel Penny\">Daniel Penny<\/a> captured headlines for the death of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/crime\/3178538\/daniel-penny-on-trial-deadly-chokehold-of-jordan-neely\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Jordan Neely<\/a>, another case brought questions of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/section\/news\/crime\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">crime<\/a> and self-defense to the forefront of the national dialogue.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>On Dec. 22, 1984, four black teenagers approached electronics specialist Bernhard Goetz, 37, on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/new-york-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"New York City \">New York City <\/a>subway. After one of them said, &ldquo;Give me five dollars,&rdquo; Goetz pulled out a five-shot revolver and opened fire, injuring all four. Of these, one suffered a severed spinal cord, paralyzing him.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Accused &ldquo;subway vigilante&rdquo; Bernhard Goetz, who shot four <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/anaylsis-more-than-half-of-joe-bidens-twitter-followers-are-fake-and-were-just-created-in-january\/\" title=\"Anaylsis: More Than Half Of Joe Biden\u2019s Twitter Followers Are FAKE and Were Just Created in January\">young black men<\/a> whom he believed were intent on robbing him on the subway, is surrounded by newsmen in New York, 1987.  (AP Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Goetz fled the scene to Vermont but turned himself in shortly after. His trial and the media coverage of it would draw national headlines, sparking debates about crime and race.<\/p>\n<p>By the 1980s, New York City had become a hub of crime &mdash; murders averaged roughly 2,000 a year. The subway system became a particular target, with an average of 38 crimes reported there per day, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.famous-trials.com\/goetz\/133-home#:~:text=During%20the%201980s%2C%20New%20York,stand%20up%20to%20these%20thugs.%22\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">according to<\/a> <em>Famous Trials<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Goetz himself had previously been mugged on the subway, leading to his obtaining a firearm for self-defense.<\/p>\n<p>The helplessness surrounding the skyrocketing crime rates led to an outpouring of sympathy for Goetz, who quickly became an icon of vigilantism.<\/p>\n<p>Goetz&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dershowitz-predicts-merchan-will-sentence-trump-to-prison-on-sept-18-but-throw-in-a-twist\/\" title=\"Dershowitz Predicts Merchan Will Sentence Trump to Prison on Sept 18, But Throw in a Twist\">legal team&#038;rsquo<\/a>;s strategy was quite different from that of Penny&rsquo;s. The former was much more aggressive, actively portraying the four teenagers who approached Goetz as predatory criminals. His lawyers referred to them throughout the trial as &ldquo;savages,&rdquo; &ldquo;predators,&rdquo; and &ldquo;vultures.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In one of the most dramatic moments in the trial, Goetz&rsquo;s defense team hired four members of the Guardian Angels, a volunteer crime patrol group, to play the role of the assailants in a court reenactment of the shooting. The volunteers were noted for being much bigger and more muscular than the actual assailants.<\/p>\n<p>In both Goetz and Penny&rsquo;s case, their defense was that they were thrown into a panicked state by the situation. Goetz&rsquo;s team particularly leaned into this angle. His defense argued that he feared he would be &ldquo;beaten to a pulp,&rdquo; the <em>Washington Post<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/archive\/politics\/1987\/06\/11\/subway-gunmans-trial-winding-to-a-close\/e76a8123-1c50-4814-b93d-b31d0a589c7b\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">reported<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The mind went off, the body went into automatic pilot,&rdquo; attorney Barry Slotnick said, adding, &ldquo;People who are traumatized should not be convicted on the basis of their traumatization.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>One key difference between the Penny and Goetz trials was the role of race. Though the prosecution and some <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">civil rights advocates alleged subconscious racial bias<\/a> in the Goetz trial, the trial made no mention of the race of either party. Polls at the time <a href=\"https:\/\/www.famous-trials.com\/goetz\/133-home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">showed<\/a> a large section of the black population taking Goetz&rsquo;s side, at times a majority, believing his actions were justified.<\/p>\n<p>This is in stark contrast to Penny&rsquo;s case, where the prosecution actively sought to center the role of race in the incident. Assistant District Attorney Jillian Shartrand almost exclusively referred to Penny as &ldquo;the white man,&rdquo; causing his defense attorneys to file for a mistrial.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;There is no longer a way my client can get anything resembling a fair trial at this point,&rdquo; Penny&rsquo;s defense attorney, Thomas Kenniff, argued, saying that the rhetoric from the prosecution made his client sound like a &ldquo;white vigilante.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Goetz ultimately won his trial, with his only conviction being on the relatively minor third-degree criminal possession of a weapon charge.<\/p>\n<p>Several analysts have noted the similarities between the Goetz and Penny cases, with Goetz himself even commenting on the trial.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;He killed Michael Jackson,&rdquo; Goetz sarcastically <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/05\/06\/infamous-vigilante-bernie-goetz-daniel-penny-has-to-pay-for-killing-jordan-neely\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">told<\/a> the <em>New York Post<\/em> when asked about the trial. &ldquo;He got to pay.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><strong><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I think Michael Jackson, tattoos, piercings, and cocaine all suck equally,&rdquo; he added when asked if he was a fan of the former singer or Neely&rsquo;s work as an impersonator.<\/p>\n<p>Goetz&rsquo;s case further lives on through pop culture, serving as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/films\/0\/joker-true-crime-story-subway-vigilante-bernhard-goetz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"central inspiration\">central inspiration<\/a> to the 2019 blockbuster <em>Joker<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <script data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/cdn-cgi\/scripts\/5c5dd728\/cloudflare-static\/email-decode.min.js\"><\/script><script>!function(){var g=window;g.googletag=g.googletag||{},g.googletag.cmd=g.googletag.cmd||[],g.googletag.cmd.push(function(){g.googletag.pubads().setTargeting(\"has-featured-video\",\"true\")})}();<\/script><script>var _bp=_bp||[];_bp.push({\"div\":\"Brid_1328569\",\"obj\":{\"id\":\"27789\",\"width\":\"1280\",\"height\":\"720\",\"stickyDirection\":\"below\",\"video\":\"1328569\"}});<\/script><script defer src=\"https:\/\/services.brid.tv\/player\/build\/brid.min.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Daniel Penny&#8217;s trial echoes a 40-year-old case that sparked national debate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2653,"featured_media":2369754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Bernie-Goetz.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[42466,45140,4853],"class_list":["post-2369753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-daniel-penny","tag-historical-parallels","tag-trial"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Bernie-Goetz.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2369753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2653"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2369753"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2369753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2369757,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2369753\/revisions\/2369757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2369754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2369753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2369753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2369753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}