A new report revealed yet another layer of injustice for subway hero Daniel Penny.
As the Marine veteran awaits a verdict in his manslaughter trial, it turns out that the official in charge of prosecuting him has a history of leniency for actual criminals.
According to Fox News, assistant Manhattan District Attorney Dafna Yoran once advocated for a lighter sentence for Matthew Lee, who was convicted of bludgeoning an 87-year-old man to death.
The crime happened on May 13, 2018, when Lee attacked Dr. Young Kun Kim from behind while the former college professor was standing at a Citibank ATM.
Much of the attack was caught on camera, which led police to arrest Lee, then 57, less than a week later.
Kim survived the initial attack but later succumbed to his injuries, most likely from a punch Lee landed to the elderly man’s head.
Rather than charge Lee with felony murder, which carries 25 years to life, Yoran pursued a manslaughter conviction that would only require a 10-year prison sentence.
Yoran would explain the reason for this act of mercy to the killer during an October 2020 seminar at Columbia University titled “Changing Lenses: Justice in the Eyes of Science and the People Impacted.”
Without using names, she described the first time she applied restorative justice and noted that it was a cut-and-dry murder case, but that she was moved to let him off easy when she learned of the perpetrator’s past “trauma” that drove him to commit the crime.
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“I really felt incredibly sorry for him that he had gotten to that point in his life where he felt there was no choice but to commit this robbery,” Yoran said.
On Tuesday, one user on X, formerly Twitter, shared a clip of her admitting this misplaced mercy.
“Absolutely insane, must-watch clip of Daniel Penny’s prosecutor Dafna Yoran. She talks about how she reduced a clear cut felony murder charge to (manslaughter?) because she ‘felt sorry for the past trauma’ that the armed robber had endured,” the account noted.
“‘Restorative justice’ insanity,” the caption noted.
Absolutely insane, must-watch clip of Daniel Penny’s prosecutor Dafna Yoran. She talks about how she reduced a clear cut felony murder charge to (manslaughter?) because she “felt sorry for the past trauma” that the armed robber had endured. “Restorative justice” insanity. pic.twitter.com/KpJg8GHmt5
— captive dreamer (@captivedreamer7) December 4, 2024
It seems the seminar aimed to use “science” to justify leniency against criminals and the leftist doublespeak concept of restorative justice, which is neither restorative nor just.
The idea is that by educating offenders that crime is bad and showing them that it is hurtful to their victims and their families, they deserve leniency for a lesson well learned.
Yoran’s embrace of such an ill-conceived and dangerous premise is bad enough on its own — but when juxtaposed with how she’s pursuing charges against Penny, it’s abominable.
By all accounts, Penny subdued 30-year-old Jordan Neely in a chokehold because he was threatening a subway car full of riders, making aggressive gestures, and telling them that “someone is going to die today.”
Penny was acting as a good Samaritan, and those whom he protected that day in May 2023 were grateful that he stepped in to do so.
Moreover, it’s questionable what role Penny played in Neely’s death, as he passed away nearly an hour after the incident.
But in a shameless display of hypocrisy, Yoran is prosecuting Penny to the fullest extent of the law despite so many mitigating factors.
“The defense here has blamed the system, the police response, everyone is responsible for Jordan Neely’s death except the defendant,” Yoran said to jurors during her closing statement, Fox reported.
“The only thing you need to determine here is that the evidence has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had killed Jordan Neely.”
As Greg Price pointed out on X, “You can’t make this up: Dafna Yoran is the Manhattan prosecutor currently throwing the book at Daniel Penny.”
The deputy rapid response director for President-elect Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign noted that Yoran “gave a reduced sentence to a black man who murdered an Asian college professor as he was withdrawing cash from an ATM” of only 10 years.
“Now she’s attempting to imprison an innocent man who protected a group of people on the subway,” Price concluded.
You can’t make this up: Dafna Yoran is the Manhattan prosecutor currently throwing the book at Daniel Penny.
In 2019, she gave a reduced sentence to a black man who murdered an asian college professor as he was withdrawing cash from an ATM.
She said that it was under the guise… pic.twitter.com/Za3kWmNSWL
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 3, 2024
It’s clear that Yoran has a double standard — and it skews in favor of criminals like Lee over brave men like Penny, who risked his own life and freedom to protect others.
This should come as no shock, considering that Yoran works under the soft-on-crime Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Leftists like Yoran fancy themselves progressive and empathetic because they go easy on criminals while withholding all clemency for a person like Penny.
They create terms that are intentionally nebulous and often are the opposite of what they’re used to describe (like mutilating genitals in the name of “gender-affirming care” and killing babies in the name of “reproductive rights”).
This jargon gives them license to act in ways that are contrary to logic and the realities of human behavior while sounding innovative.
Of all the malignancies caused by the woke mind virus, this is one of the more insidious ones, as it has a ripple effect on security and justice in every corner of the nation.
Yoran is wrong to prosecute Penny at all, but her willingness to go easy on Lee — and brag about her empathy in doing so — underscores the profound injustice being perpetrated against an American hero.
Daniel Penny deserves so much better.
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