from WNYC studios. I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast. It's Monday, May 8th.

Well, it was one week ago today that Jordan Neely was choked to death on that F train in Manhattan,

and the Manhattan

DA is apparently still deciding if the choker will be charged. We now know the identity of the

choker, 24-year-old former Marine Daniel Penny, originally from West Islip on the south shore of

Long Island. There were developments over the weekend, including protests, and pieces of evidence emerging,

and Mr. Penny hiring as a defense lawyer, who else but the Republican who ran against Alvin Bragg

for Manhattan DA, the lawyer's name is Thomas Kenneth or Kniff. The lawyer released a statement

over the weekend that said Daniel never intended to harm Mr. Neely

and could not have foreseen his untimely death.

But could he have?

Bystander video emerged over the weekend of someone warning Penny that he was killing Neely.

The person said, that's one hell of a chokehold.

You're going to kill him. ABC News reports,

D.A. Bragg has interviewed six people, but wants to interview four more. The statement from

Penny's lawyer also says, when Mr. Neely began aggressively threatening Daniel Penny and the other

passengers, Daniel, with the help of others, acted to protect themselves

until help arrived. So one of the things at stake legally is what the standard will be going

forward on the subways and elsewhere for physically attacking a person in a mental health

crisis when they are making you scared by yelling, but not specifically threatening to hurt you

and not physically attacking anyone themselves. Remember, the witness reports in the press say

Mr. Neely was apparently in a mental health crisis that had him yelling that he was hungry

...