The renowned leader of New York’s BLM chapter incited fury outside the Daniel Penny trial by slurring the former Marine and screaming “the KKK got another victory,” after the court dismissed the highest charge of manslaughter.
According to the Daily Mail, after the jury deadlocked on Friday, Hawk Newsome told reporters that anyone who believes Penny is innocent has “racism in their heart” and hinted that at least one juror in Penny’s case could be a “white supremacist hold out”.
“Logically, if you pick a white supremacist jury specialist, and you pack a jury with white people, obviously you think race has a specific role in this case, and obviously you are looking for that one white supremacist hold out,” Newsome added, according to the report.
The jurors were tied both times on the allegation of manslaughter in the second degree, the highest charge in the case.
Newsome stated that the high-profile tube choke that has dominated news for months is about race.
“Racism has its tentacles all over this case and all over the minds of white America,” according to Newsome.
A post on X accusing Newsome of attempting to intimidate jurors, who will return next week to deliberate on a lesser allegation of criminally negligent homicide, received 14,000 likes.
“Radical BLM activist Hawk Newsome is spearheading the rallies outside the courthouse, attempting to frighten the jury in the Daniel Penny case. “Why do they allow this?” wrote user Matthew Nichol.
Newsome is a regular agitator, having once threatened “bloodshed” in reaction to Mayor Eric Adams’ call for stronger policing.
Penny, 26, was charged with manslaughter for allegedly choking Jordan Neely, 30, a mentally ill homeless man, during a May 2023 encounter on a Manhattan F train.
Neely had allegedly been bothering and threatening other passengers when Penny placed him in a chokehold.
On the second day of deliberations, jurors requested to see a six-minute video filmed by another passenger that showed Penny, a former marine, choking Neely.
Prosecutors reluctantly decided to drop the manslaughter allegation after jurors sent two notes — just hours apart — both indicating that the jury was deadlocked on the issue.
Justice Maxwell Wiley decided to withdraw the allegation and directed the jury to return Monday to discuss criminally negligent homicide, which has a lesser sentence.
On Tuesday, jurors began deliberations in the hotly fought trial.