NEW YORK – Defense attorneys for Marine veteran Daniel Penny, on trial in New York for the subway choking death of Jordan Neely, want to call a forensic psychiatrist to the witness stand to explain how the effects of the latter’s drug abuse and mental health problems could have impacted “the degree of hostility that Mr. Neely displayed.”

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office does not want the jury to see that evidence or hear expert testimony from Dr. Alexander Bardey.

Tuesday’s hearing began with lawyers for both sides meeting with the judge.

“The psychiatrist’s testimony and unredacted psychiatric records are inadmissible, and their suggested introduction is a transparent attempt by the defense to slander the victim’s character so that the jury will devalue her life,” prosecutor Dafna Yoran argued in court filings.

DANIEL PENNY TRIAL RECONVES WITH THIRD DAY OF TESTIMONY FROM MEDICAL EXAMINER, QUESTIONS ABOUT CAUSE OF DEATH

Daniel Penny arrives at Manhattan Supreme Court in New York, NY, Monday, November 18, 2024. Penny, a Navy veteran, is charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the 2023 death of Jordan Neely on a New York. City subway train. (Adam Gray for Fox News Digital)

She did not want jurors to hear about Neely’s past, arguing that the information was “impermissible.”

“It is black-letter law in New York that prior bad acts of a deceased victim are admissible at trial only if they were known to the defendant at the time of the crime,” she wrote.

The defense argued that drug use is exempt from this rule because, even if one does not know about it ahead of time, the effects are clear.

But the defense counters that because of the lack of detail about the dose of synthetic marijuana found in Neely’s system in his toxicology report, Dr. Bardey’s testimony is required.

MEDICAL EXAMINER SAYS SUBWAY MADMAN PUT DRUGS IN SYSTEM IN MARINE VET’S SUFFERING PROCESS

Jordan Neely is photographed before going to see Michael Jackson’s ‘This is It’ outside the Regal Cinemas on 8th Ave. and 42nd St. in Times Square, New York in 2009. (Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

“The limited toxicology and varying eyewitness accounts form only a partial narrative,” Penny’s attorney Thomas Kenniff wrote in a court filing. “The defense is entitled to information contained in Mr. Neely’s psychiatric records that demonstrates the pervasive nature of K2 use, along with the physiological behaviors he routinely exhibited while on K2.

“Expert testimony in this regard tends to support two relevant facts: Mr. Neely was using K2 at the time of this incident, not just in the days or weeks before, and he was exhibiting the behaviors of someone dealing with high levels of K2.”

DANIEL PENNY BELIEVED HE WAS PROTECTING A DIVERSE SUBWAY CAR, BUT PROSECUTORS HIGHLIGHT RACIAL UNDERTONES

Screenshot from a bystander’s video showing Jordan Neely being held up in a New York City subway jam. (Luces de Nueva York/Juan Alberto Vazquez via Storyful)

Penny, 26, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the main charge of manslaughter. He also faces a lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide in the death of Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with a history of mental health issues, drug abuse and criminal behavior, including some took place in the subway.

The defense was expected to call Dr. Bardey to the stand Tuesday, as well as witnesses who served in the Marine Corps alongside Penny, who enlisted after high school and was studying architecture at the time of her fatal encounter with Neely last May.

Neely entered the train, threw his jacket on the ground and started shouting death threats, telling the straphangers that he didn’t care if he went to prison for life.

During the outburst, Penny choked him and wrestled him to the ground while witnesses called 911. Another rider helped Penny restrain him until police arrived.

When he was released, Neely still had a pulse, but the medical examiner who performed the autopsy, Dr. Cynthia Harris, testified that it is normal for someone’s heart to continue beating for some time even if they died of suffocation.

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In her autopsy, she ruled that Neely’s death was caused by asphyxiation from suffocation.

Penny’s team argued that Neely’s death was self-defense. Prosecutors say it was unintentional but criminally or negligent.