Penny’s “Not Guilty” Verdict Puts Stigma on Display | Psychology Today

An overarching theme of my abnormal psychology course is the role that stigma and stereotypes about the mentally ill play in their prognosis and willingness to seek treatment. These processes do not occur in isolation and intersect with other aspects of a person’s identity in shaping how they are perceived by the public.

In the aftermath of the verdict that jurors decided against Daniel Penny, I can’t help but think how stigma against mental illness—or any erratic behaviors when displayed in public that lead observers to assume pathology—played into his actions being deemed “not guilty”.

For those of you who don’t live in New York, this story may not have been as prominent in your news feed. Daniel Penny is a former Marine who took it upon himself to choke a subway rider on an F train last year. The victim, Jordan Neely—both homeless and with a history of mental illness (and Black)—was behaving erratically and scaring some passengers with his behavior as he walked through the subway car. Penny put Neely in a chokehold to subdue him, and ended up holding him for—I would argue—longer than what would be required to contain him, and Neely was killed. Jurors were deliberating on whether Neely’s behavior on the subway that day met the standard for criminally negligent homicide, ultimately deciding that it did not.

Let me share with readers who are unfamiliar with urban living that unfortunately, loud subway riders, and even the occasional “menace” who is walking through the subway cars and yelling profanities or other thoughts isn’t a totally foreign occurrence for commuters. In fact, I regularly take the F train from Brooklyn when I am teaching at NYU, so had it been a different day of the week, I could have been on that subway car. I also regularly encounter homeless individuals who appear to have mental illnesses, and usually, they keep to themselves, or as they walk through the car, maybe talking or trying to engage with passengers, but whether or not they provoke fear in riders reflects just as much about the particular commuters on that particular train as it does any underlying qualities of the individuals themselves.

I would like to think that had I been on that train I could have advocated for Mr. Neely, who was 30 years old. His tragic death reflects the stark intersection of stigma, stereotypes about the mentally ill—particularly when they appear to be displaying behaviors consistent with schizophrenia—and race. It should not be lost in any commentary that Penny is White and Neely was Black, nor that class also played a role in how both men were perceived by the jurors, whether or not they were conscious of their biases.

Stigma is when a person experiences shame associated with a particular quality they appear to possess, and is very common against individuals who display symptoms of mental illnesses. In fact, schizophrenia remains one of the most stigmatized mental illnesses in our country, in large part because it is associated with lower socioeconomic status, and is overrepresented among the homeless (and prison) population (Aalai, 2024). Such a reality reflects systemic collapse on multiple levels of institutions within our nation that are failing to address critical mental health needs for our most vulnerable populations.

Stereotypes oftentimes contribute to stigma, which reflects the generalizations that are made about a given group based on common media depictions or other inaccurate sources of information. The commuters on that subway car, and the jurors, all fell for the stereotype that people with mental illnesses—and schizophrenia in particular—pose a threat to the larger public. To be clear, I believe that many commuters likely were frightened and/or uncomfortable by Neely’s behavior—as many of them testified to in this trial. However, what does it say about our values as a society when that discomfort is weighed against a man’s life, and there is no accountability for the individual who was responsible for taking said life?

As the New York Times has been reporting on this case, they aptly note that it, “had come to exemplify New York City’s post-pandemic struggles” (Meko & Bayya, 2024). Indeed, in many ways the homeless and mentally ill have been a target in this city by the current mayor. Moreover, a lack of funding and resources being allocated for mental health services in cities like ours translates to reactive policies or inadequate actions in how to tackle a real problem. For instance, concern for the homeless is oftentimes outsourced to the NYPD, who have had a larger presence on NYC subways since the pandemic. But such policies betray the reality that though they may provoke fear in others, homeless individuals with schizophrenia are actually far more likely to be victims of a crime than they are to be perpetrators. Had there been even one commuter on that train to intervene on behalf of Neely and remind everyone in the subway car that they were likely safer than they may have felt, this may have saved his life (and spared Penny the stress of this trial).

In fact, as I have written regarding stigma:

Despite the stereotypes that fuse schizophrenia with violence or crime, the stark reality is that individuals suffering from this disorder are far more likely to be victims when they are unhoused than other homeless individuals (Harrison, 2023). For instance, research has identified that “unhoused women with schizophrenia were more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than those without the disorder” (Harrison, 2023). Moreover, homeless individuals who are also suffering from schizophrenia are more likely to be victims of murder, as well as other risk factors that raise the likelihood of an early death, including suicide (Harrison, 2023). (Aalai, 2024, Chapter 9).

My sympathy goes out to Mr. Neely’s family. His father, Zachary, who was understandably in distress and angry after the verdict was read, was asked by the judge to leave the courtroom. In fact, in the aftermath of the verdict, Zachary stated outside the courtroom, “'I just want to say I miss my son. My son didn’t have to go through this either. It hurts. It really, really hurts.”’ (Charalambous, Katersky, & Alfonseca, 2024). He went on to lament, “’I had enough of this, the system is rigged’” (Charalambous, Katersky, & Alfonseca, 2024).

Indeed, when reflecting on the stakes associated with stigma and stereotyping the mentally ill—and individuals who conform to our stereotypes of schizophrenia in particular—it is important to remember that the homeless individual who appears to be menacing is nonetheless still a human being with their own backstory and family. There were many options that commuters had on that train on that fateful day, as did Penny. I have been in situations on the subway on that very same F line where I have felt uncomfortable by a homeless person, and in those situations, I usually move or go into a different subway car at the next stop. In fact, as a woman when I am commuting by myself, there are far greater threats posed to me than homeless commuters. What I have not done—and hope to never participate in as a commuter—is sit by idly while someone with greater physical training and expertise uses their body as a weapon against a fellow commuter.

We need to do a lot more work as psychologists to advocate for the mentally ill and dispel the insidious stereotypes and persistent stigma that contributed to the events that unfolded on the F train last year.

Copyright Azadeh Aalai 2024.