Operator of secret Chinese police station in NYC pleads guilty
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(NEW YORK) — One of the suspects accused of running a secret Chinese police station in lower Manhattan has pleaded guilty.
The suspects in the case, Lu Jianwang and Chen Jinping, were accused by prosecutors last year of working on behalf of China’s Ministry of Public Security in violation of the Espionage Act.
Chen pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a charge of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government. He will be sentenced on May 30, 2025. Lu has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
At the time the case was charged in April 2023, the FBI called it in an example of China’s “audacious activities” on U.S. soil.
The location in Chinatown claimed to be a nonprofit organization helping Chinese-Americans but federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, who brought the case, said it “appears to have had a more sinister use.”
Prosecutors said the secret police station was set up by Chinese counterintelligence operatives to harass and intimidate dissidents living in the United States.
“Today, a participant in a transnational repression scheme who worked to establish a secret police station in the middle of New York City on behalf of the national police force of the People’s Republic of China has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to act as an illegal agent,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said. “We will continue our efforts to protect the rights of vulnerable persons who come to this country to escape the repressive activities of authoritarian regimes.”
(AUSTIN, Texas) — The execution of Robert Roberson — whose “shaken baby syndrome” murder conviction in the death of his 2-year-old daughter has come under scrutiny — can resume, according to a Texas Supreme Court decision Friday.
Roberson was set to become the first person in the U.S. executed for a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis murder conviction on Oct. 17 before the court intervened and a state House committee issued a subpoena for Roberson, halting the execution amid legal battles over his fate.
Roberson’s execution warrant was only valid through Oct. 17.
Roberson was found guilty of the 2002 murder of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki, in part based on the testimony of a pediatrician who described swelling and hemorrhages in her brain to support a shaken baby syndrome diagnosis.
However, Roberson’s legal team argued that newer evidence found that Nikki had pneumonia and had been prescribed respiratory-suppressing drugs by doctors in the days leading up to her death, leading to a case of severe viral and bacterial pneumonia that progressed to sepsis and then septic shock.
Roberson has long proclaimed his innocence. His fight for clemency has been backed by several state lawmakers, medical and scientific experts, and criminal justice advocates who have questioned the legitimacy of the use of the shaken baby syndrome diagnosis in his case, based on newer scientific evidence.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and other state officials have argued that “Roberson was lawfully sentenced to death” and that he has “exhausted every legally available appellate avenue.”
Paxton also argued that the jury did not convict Roberson solely based on shaken baby syndrome, though Roberson’s attorneys said that “shaken baby” was referred to by prosecutors and witnesses throughout the jury trial.
(NEW YORK) — Even as the South continues its recovery from the devastation of Hurricane Helene, another storm system is showing the potential for development in the Gulf of Mexico.
Early October is still not far from last month’s peak of the hurricane season.
Most of the tropical systems in the Atlantic will stay away from the U.S., including Tropical Storm Kirk, but one system in the Caribbean could move into the Gulf by the end of the week.
At this time, it is still too early to say how much it will develop and where it will hit. But some of our most trusted computer models bring this system to Florida by early next week with heavy rain.
Right now, it has a 40% chance of development by the end of the week.
If the system is named, it could be called Leslie or Milton, depends on whether something forms in the Atlantic first.
(NEW YORK) — Daniel Penny has been found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide for the death of Jordan Neely by the jury on Monday.
The jury deliberated for more than 24 hours across five days before reaching the verdict.
The courtroom broke out in a mix of cheers and jeers as soon as the verdict was read.
Jordan Neely’s father cursed in anger shortly after the verdict and was forcibly removed from the courtroom by a court officer. Others in the gallery shouted, and one woman broke down to tears.
“It’s a small world, buddy,” one man shouted.
“No justice in this racist f—— country,” said another.
Penny, walking out of the courtroom, flashed a brief smile before returning to his stone-faced demeanor. His lawyers embraced one another while seated at counsel table.
The jury in the Penny trial continued deliberations Monday over whether he committed criminally negligent homicide when he placed Neely in a chokehold on a subway car last year, after the jury was deadlocked on the more serious charge of manslaughter last week.
At the request of prosecutors on Friday, Judge Maxwell Wiley dismissed the second-degree manslaughter charge – which carried a maximum 15-year sentence – and directed the jury to turn to the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide, which has a four-year maximum sentence. Neither crime has a minimum sentence. Penny pleaded not guilty to both charges.
“What that means is you are now free to consider count two. Whether that makes any difference or not, I have no idea,” Wiley said before sending the jury home for the weekend.
Prosecutors allege that Penny killed Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man who had previously been a Michael Jackson impersonator, when he placed him in a six-minute-long chokehold on a subway car in May 2023, holding Neely for at least 51 seconds after his body went limp. Assistant district attorney Dafna Yoran argued Penny knew his actions could kill Neely but continued to hold him in a chokehold for “way too long” and “didn’t recognize his humanity.”
The city’s medical examiner concluded Penny’s chokehold killed Neely. The defense argued Neely died from a genetic condition and the synthetic marijuana found in his system.
Defense attorney Steven Raiser told jurors that Penny “acted to save” subway passengers from a “violent and desperate” Neely, who was acting erratically and “scared the living daylights out of everybody.” Raiser argued that Neely was fighting back, and Penny continued to hold on because he feared he would break free, though he didn’t intend to kill Neely.
Wiley denied a new motion for a mistrial made Monday morning by Penny’s defense lawyers, who argued that the dismissal of the manslaughter charge would influence the jury’s verdict.
“There is no way to cure the legal error that we believe very strongly happened on Friday, and we are renewing our motion for a mistrial on the remaining count two,” said Thomas Kenniff, who said the dismissal could result in a “coercive verdict.”
Wiley disagreed, promptly denying the motion like he did on Friday when the defense unsuccessfully argued twice for a mistrial.
To prevent the possibility of influencing the jury, Wiley proposed issuing a new instruction to the jury explicitly stating that the court is “not directing you to any particular verdict.”
Wiley also offered to give the jury an instruction to ignore chants from protesters outside the courthouse – including “Justice for Jordan Neely,” “Daniel Penny subway stranger” and “If we don’t get no justice, they don’t get no peace” – which the defense team declined because it might bring more attention to the chants.
For now, the chants have quieted down, and they are no longer audible in court. If they resume, Judge Wiley said he would consider delivering an instruction or moving the jury to another deliberation room.
Last week, the jury spent more than 23 hours across four days deliberating whether Penny, a 26-year-old former Marine and architecture student, committed second degree manslaughter before repeatedly signaling that they could not reach a unanimous verdict.
Wiley ultimately granted prosecutors’ request to dismiss the first count while Penny’s defense attorneys unsuccessfully pushed for a mistrial, arguing that continued deliberations could lead to a “coercive or a compromised verdict” by “elbowing” jurors to convict on the lesser charge.
Manslaughter would have required proving that Penny acted recklessly and grossly deviated from how a reasonable person would behave, while proving criminally negligent homicide requires the jury to be convinced that Penny engaged in “blameworthy conduct” that he did not consider would lead to the risk of death.
Outside court, protesters and counter protesters have assembled, with “say his name” chants slightly audible in the 13th floor courtroom. As Penny entered the courthouse this morning, he was met with competing chants of “murderer” and “not guilty.”
