A verdict in one of the most divisive criminal trials of recent times is imminent.

A jury in New York is deliberating after closing arguments concluded on Tuesday in the case of Daniel Penny, the ex-Marine on trial for second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

Penny, who is white, killed Jordan Neely, a homeless and mentally troubled Black man, on the New York City subway in May 2023.

Neely, according to witnesses, was being disruptive and shouting incoherently. The extent to which he posed an actual threat to passengers on the subway is hotly debated.

What is agreed is that Penny restrained Neely, placing him in a physical hold for around six minutes, and that Neely died.

The city medical examiner in New York has said that Neely died as a result of compression of the neck from Penny’s actions.

A pathologist who testified for the defense has contended he might have died from other issues, including drug use and a blood condition.

The medical examiner volleyed back that this idea was “so improbable that it stands shoulder-to-shoulder with impossibility.”

But the fates of Penny and Neely have, like so much else in American life, become sucked into the polarities of political debate.

Conservatives have cast Penny as a hero who is being unfairly scapegoated by progressives.

In this narrative, the former Marine was........

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