The jury weighing the fate of Daniel Penny had every reason to convict the innocent Marine veteran for a crime he did not commit. Despite the fact that Alvin Bragg downgraded a staggering 60% of felony cases to lesser charges in the last year, the Manhattan district attorney went after Penny with a perverse passion, charging Penny with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide for the drug-fueled death of a mentally ill career criminal, Jordan Neely.

Judge Maxwell Wiley attempted to strong-arm the jury into a conviction, dismissing the manslaughter charge to force the deadlocked jury to proceed to a conviction on the homicide count, a charge the jury was never supposed to even consider without a guilty verdict for the manslaughter charge. And as Penny’s defense protested, the vitriolic threats of the mob outside the courtroom — “if we don’t get no justice, they don’t get no peace” — could be heard inside.