Daniel Penny Trial: Highest Manslaughter Charge Dismissed

A New York City judge over the weekend dismissed the most serious charge against a Marine veteran involved in the death of a homeless man while aboard a subway train last year.

Judge Maxwell Wiley, who ruled over the case, dismissed the top count of manslaughter against Daniel Penny, who was 24 at that time when he placed 30-year old Jordan Neely in a chokehold on May 1, 2023.

The jury began deliberating on Tuesday and was instructed that they needed to reach a verdict on the manslaughter charge before considering a lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide. However, they told the judge they remained deadlocked on the top charge.

Penny’s lawyer Steven Raiser requested a mistrial, but Wiley told the jury to focus on the second manslaughter charge and return for further deliberations.

”Whether that makes any difference or not, I have no idea. But I’m going to direct you to focus your deliberations on count two,” Wiley said, telling them to “go home and think about something else.”

A fourth round of deliberations was scheduled on Monday.

Penny previously maintained that he never intended to kill Neely who had a history of mental illness during the encounter.

Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office also did not dispute that Neely was loud, angry and threatening as he boarded the train, shouting that he was hungry, thirsty and wanted to be sent back to jail. However, they argued that Penny used excessive and unjustified force for nearly six minutes after the train pulled into the station and other passengers left.

They also claimed that Penny ignored warnings from bystanders about the danger to Neely’s life.

“He didn’t recognize that Mr. Neely, too, was a person,” assistant district attorney Dafna Yoran said in a statement. “He didn’t care what happened to Mr. Neely.”

Penny’s defense lawyers told jurors that Penny, a student on his way to a gym, acted out of alarm that Neely might hurt a woman and a child he was approaching. Neely was found unarmed.

“What happened on May 1, 2023, was not a chokehold death,” Raiser said on Monday. “He was controlling Mr. Neely’s body, not choking him.”

The killing gained widespread public attention, with some viewing Neely, who was Black, as a victim of a white vigilante. Others, including some Republican politicians, called Penny a hero.