Gothamist reports:
Attorneys for Daniel Penny have collected more than $900,000 for a legal defense fund through a website that bills itself as a Christian fundraising platform and has supported several divisive right-wing cases. Like many crowdsourcing sites, GiveSendGo supports various causes, such as medical bills and funeral expenses.
It has promoted itself as “The #1 Free Christian Fundraising Site” and has also hosted funds for the Jan. 6 defendants and Kyle Rittenhouse. As of Friday morning, the fund had received more than 19,000 donations and more than 13,000 “pray” votes, a feature unique to GiveSendGo. It has been shared more than 5000 times.
The New York Times reports:
Daniel Penny, who while riding the subway last week choked Jordan Neely, a homeless man, to death, was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court Friday on a charge of second-degree manslaughter, taking his first formal steps as a defendant in a case that has stunned New York City.
Mr. Penny, handcuffed and dressed in a dark gray suit and white dress shirt, stood straight and still before the judge, Kevin McGrath. He did not enter a plea to the charge, as he has yet to be indicted by a grand jury, and spoke only to answer the judge’s questions and acknowledge that he would next appear in court on July 17. He was released after posting bail.
The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, said in a statement that the arrest of Mr. Penny, 24, a Marine veteran, had come after many witness interviews, a review of photos and video and discussions with the medical examiner’s office, which had ruled Mr. Neely’s death a homicide.
Penny has been hailed as “stand your ground” folk hero by prominent right wingers, far-right podcasters, and Trump cult social media influencers. The above-linked money beg has risen by several thousand since I started writing this post and will surely top $1 million by the end of the day.