Daniel Penny’s lawyer calls murder of Iryna Zarutska ‘disheartening,’ hoped society ‘turned a corner’

Daniel Penny’s lawyer said he thought society could be “turning a corner” after his client was acquitted in the subway death of Jordan Neely – only for the slaying of a Ukrainian refugee on Charlotte’s rail system to send shockwaves across the country.

Attorney Thomas Kenniff, who represented the Marine veteran in the high-profile trial brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, slammed progressive policies that he believes paved the way to Iryna Zarutska’s murder by alleged killer Decarlos Brown Jr.  

“Honestly, it’s disheartening because we were obviously ecstatic to get an acquittal for Danny,” Kenniff told The Post Wednesday.

“But we also hoped and I think society hoped, that we were turning a corner. And we’d say enough is enough.

“Yet here we are, almost a year later, these same policies that allowed psychotic Jordan Neely to victimize people on the streets and subways for well over a decade for little or no consequence, they are still out there letting people like the Charlotte suspect perpetuate crime that should be preventable.”

Brown, who was homeless and suffering from schizophrenia, claims he fatally attacked Zarutska because he thought she was reading his mind, his family said this week.   

Neely was also living on the streets for years and dealing with mental health problems when he boarded an F train in May 2023. The 30-year-old raged on the train, threatening to kill riders before Penny placed him in a fatal chokehold.

Penny was later charged with manslaughter and negligent homicide, but a jury later acquitted him on both counts.

Kenniff, of the law firm Raiser, Kenniff and Lonstein, argued the Charlotte train murder should put to rest questions about what Penny could have “done differently or that he should have waited longer.”

“The reality is, these things happen instantaneously. You react or you don’t,” he added. “It puts it all in perspective. The fear among most of the passengers on the train was that Neely had a knife or a gun.”

Footage of the Charlotte rail showed other straphangers in shock and slow to react in the immediate aftermath of stabbing — before it became clear that Zarutska was bleeding out.

“Prosecutors of good Samaritans like Daniel Penny, have a chilling effect on bystanders who might otherwise be motivated to help, yet fear the legal system might be weaponized against them if they do,” Kenniff said.

Brown, 24, is facing state and federal charges in connection with the slaying as Kenniff insisted the repeat offender should not have been allowed to roam free.  

Brown, a career criminal, was recently arrested after calling 911 for a welfare check, insisting to cops he had “man-made” material inside his body and flying into a rage when authorities said there was nothing they could do for him, according to an affidavit.

At a Jan. 21 hearing, Magistrate Judge Teresa Stokes was told about Brown’s case, but granted him cashless bail on a “written promise” that he would show up to a future court date.

“You see this guy, 14 prior arrests, involuntary commitments by his own mother, warrants, stints in jail and he’s released on his own signature to promise to come back to court,” he said of Brown.

“You juxtapose that with my client and he is someone who served his country, had no record, a full-time college student and he was forced to post a six-figure bond, have his travel restricted and defer his academic career for two years.”

While Penny avoided any criminal conviction, he is still facing an ongoing wrongful death lawsuit brought by Neely’s family, Kenniff confirmed.