NEW YORK – Opening statements are scheduled for Friday in the manslaughter trial of Daniel Penny, a white Navy veteran accused of strangling to death a distraught black subway passenger.

An unnamed Manhattan jury is deciding the manslaughter case surrounding the 2023 death of Jordan Neely, which prosecutors call a reckless killing, but Penny claims it was self-defense. The case has shaken fault lines around race, homelessness, perceptions of public safety and bystander responsibility.

Penny’s critics see him as a vigilante killer of an unarmed man who behaved erratically and made shocking statements but had not assaulted anyone in the subway car. His supporters credit Penny, 25, with taking steps to protect frightened subway riders, actions he says were meant to calm, not kill.

Both sides have held demonstrations and the case was absorbed into troubled U.S. politics as Republican officials spoke in favor of Penny and Democrats attended Neely’s funeral.

“This is not an easy case of a bad man doing a bad thing,” prosecutor Dafna Yoran told potential jurors during the selection process. While Penny’s intention might have been laudable, he said, “what we’re going to ask them to see is whether she went too far.”

Meanwhile, Penny’s attorney, Steven Raiser, has said that a conviction “will have a chilling effect on the right and duty of every New Yorker to defend one another.”

Jurors, who were asked about their own experiences on the subway, will hear opening statements and possibly some witness testimony on Friday. It is unclear who will be prosecutors’ first witness.

Neely’s life was shattered by mental illness and drug use after his mother was murdered and stuffed into a suitcase when he was a teenager, his family said. In his 30s, he sometimes entertained subway passengers as a Michael Jackson impersonator, but he also had a criminal record that included assaulting a woman in a subway station.

Penny, who had served four years in the Marine Corps, said she was walking from a college class to a gym when she ran into Neely on the subway on May 1, 2023.

Neely demanded money, shouted that he was ready to die or go to jail, and made sudden movements, according to witnesses. Some were alarmed, others indifferent, according to court documents.

Penny, who said Neely was threatening people, put her arm around the man’s neck and knocked him to the ground.

While a bystander videotaped part of the encounter, Penny held Neely for about six minutes, prosecutors wrote in court documents. The hold continued as the train stopped, many people got off, two others helped restrain Neely and another warned Penny: “If you don’t let him go now, you’ll kill him.”

Penny finally released Neely nearly a minute after his body weakened, prosecutors said.

“I took it out,” Penny told police. He later added that he had simply wanted to “de-escalate” the tense situation and was not trying to hurt Neely but rather “prevent him from hurting anyone else.”

City medical examiners determined that Neely died from neck compression. Penny’s lawyers have indicated they plan to challenge that finding.

They have tried, unsuccessfully, to prevent jurors from hearing some evidence, including Neely’s lack of a gun and Penny’s statement to detectives at the police station.

Judge Maxwell Wiley denied both requests. It ruled that Penny voluntarily spoke to investigators without an attorney, and that the question of whether Neely was armed (or whether anyone could reasonably have thought he was) is relevant.