On Monday, Dec. 9, a Manhattan jury found Daniel Penny — the man charged in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train — not guilty of criminally negligent homicide.
Penny, 24, had also previously been charged with manslaughter; however, after the jury was unable to reach a verdict last week, Judge Maxwell Wiley had agreed to drop the manslaughter charges at the request of the Manhattan District Attorney. The lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide carried a potential sentence of four years in prison.
Penny, a White Marine veteran, had been charged in connection with the May 2023 incident that made national headlines. Neely, a 30-year-old Black homeless man, had boarded a northbound F train at Second Avenue on May 1, 2023. Video footage showed Penny restraining Neely by the neck on the floor of the subway train in Manhattan, as two other passengers appear to come to Penny’s aid. Prosecutors say that Penny put Neely in a chokehold for several minutes after approaching him from behind, and that eventually Neely’s body stopped moving and he was pronounced dead at a hospital. Prosecutors argued that Penny was indifferent to Neely’s life and noted that he continued the hold on him even after the train had stopped and the doors had opened (per The Associated Press.)
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said that Neely was verbally threatening passengers on board, with CNN reported at the time that Neely — a Michael Jackson impersonator — saying he didn’t care if he went back to jail and complained of being hungry. The defense also argued that the pressure on Neely’s neck wasn’t applied consistently enough to kill him.
In a statement, Bragg said he respected the verdict, but condemned the “hate and threats” directed at prosecutors trying the case for the DA’s office: “Over the duration of this trial, talented career prosecutors and their family members were besieged with hate and threats – on social media, by phone and over email. Simply put, this is unacceptable, and everyone, no matter your opinion on this case, should condemn it.”
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