Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg continues to operate as a rogue prosecutor despite all his losses.
Bragg keeps pushing the limit to see how much a judge will stomach.
And Alvin Bragg made this one demand in court that had all Hell breaking loose.
Alvin Bragg suffers another massive defeat after not guilty verdict in Penny trial
The jury’s not guilty verdict in the trial of Daniel Penny was a massive defeat for left-wing Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg.
Daniel Penny is the 24-year-old marine and good Samaritan who heroically came to the aid of passengers of a New York City subway when lifelong criminal Jordan Neely – whom police had arrested on 42 prior occasions – threatened the lives of other riders.
Penny placed Neely in a restraining hold because of his violent rantings and demeanor.
Neely later died, although not from the supposed Penny “chokehold” as the media portrayed.
But rather than praise Penny as a hero who stepped up to protect women from a violent thug, Bragg arrested Penny on murder charges to appease the leftist mob.
That’s because Penny is White and Neely black.
Black Lives Matter intimidated Bragg into pressing charges, by spouting the idea that civil unrest could occur if Bragg didn’t arrest Penny.
Bragg charged Penny with manslaughter, which carries a 15-year prison term.
But Bragg then also tacked on a criminally negligent homicide charge.
Criminally negligent homicide is punishable with a sentence of anywhere between probation and up to four years in prison.
How Bragg tried to rig the scales of justice against Daniel Penny
It wasn’t clear why Bragg tacked on this charge until the trial played out.
After three days of deliberations, the jury announced it was deadlocked on the manslaughter charge.
That should have been grounds right then and there for a mistrial.
Instead, Judge Maxwell Wiley granted Bragg’s request to have the jury go home for the weekend and come back on Monday to deliberate on the criminally negligent homicide charge.
“I’ll take a chance and grant the people’s application,” Judge Wiley declared.
Even Judge Wiley knew this move was legally dubious before announcing he was sending the jury home.
“Whether that makes any difference or not, I have no idea. But I’m going to direct you to focus your deliberations on count two,” Wiley added, telling the jurors, “Go home and think about something else.”
This was outrageous.
Penny’s defense was justification.
If the jury couldn’t reach a verdict on the manslaughter charge when Penny claimed his actions were justified, there is no way for them to determine if Penny’s actions were negligent.
Had the jury decided in Penny’s favor and acquitted on the manslaughter charge believing his actions were justified, then the jury couldn’t have proceeded to say that his actions were negligent.
Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy wrote a column for NationalReview.com explaining that Bragg set up this lawless structure of charges to rig the trial so the jury could convict Penny of something.
“Bragg added a baseless recklessness charge to the indictment so the jury would have two counts, increasing the odds of conviction by giving the jury something to compromise on,” McCarthy explained.
“Instead of deciding negligence as the central question, that count was treated as a fallback position for the jurors to have something to pin on Penny — i.e., they could feel good about convicting him of negligence, not because he was guilty but because they had already acquitted him of the more severe recklessness charge,” McCarthy continued.
Bragg is up for re-election in 2025.
Bragg may also want to run for Mayor in 2025.
So Penny getting off and not getting convicted on some kind of charge wasn’t an option if Bragg wanted a political future.
Alvin Bragg rigging a trial for political reasons is why Donald Trump’s accusations of a weaponized justice system carried so much weight with voters.
Fortunately, the outcome was the right one, as the jury found Penny not guilty, and he is now a free man.