In New York, a judge on Friday dismissed the most serious charge of second-degree manslaughter against a white former U.S. marine who choked Black street performer Jordan Neely to death on a subway last May. The ruling clears the way for the jury to consider the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide against Daniel Penny, who held Neely in a chokehold until he died. This is Chivona Newsome, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter New York chapter.

Chivona Newsome: “No matter the expert witnesses, no matter the people yelling on that train that day to 'let Jordan go, you will kill him,' they will not find a white man guilty of killing a Black man in modern-day America. This is no different than Jim Crow.”

If convicted, Penny faces up to four years in prison. Neely, a 30-year-old beloved street performer, was unhoused and hungry, and crying out for help when the ex-marine attacked him. Neely was well known to New Yorkers and tourists as a talented Michael Jackson impersonator.