In the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with a history of mental illness, whose last moments on a New York City subway train were caught on bystander video that sparked weeks of protests and garnered national attention, Daniel Penny was cleared on Monday of criminally negligent homicide.
The verdict was made on the fifth day of the trial after the judge dismissed the more serious allegation of manslaughter due to the jury’s stalemate on Friday. Penny may spend up to four years behind bars.
Before they started deliberating, the anonymous jury—which consists of five men and seven women—was informed that they would have to reach a unanimous verdict on the primary allegation of second-degree manslaughter before considering criminally negligent homicide. However, after jurors twice sent notes that they were unable to come to a consensus, Judge Maxwell Wiley modified that order on Friday.
Before the jury started considering, the court had also given them instructions to determine if Penny’s actions killed Neely and, if so, whether his conduct were reckless and unjustified.
aboard May 1, 2023, Neely, a former Michael Jackson lookalike, got aboard a subway train in Manhattan while yelling and acting strangely. Witnesses said that he yelled about being thirsty and hungry, that he didn’t care if he lived or died, and that he wanted to go back to jail. According to authorities, Penny, a 26-year-old Long Island resident and former Marine, choked Neely for about six minutes.
According to a New York City medical examiner, Neely’s death was caused by compression on his neck during the chokehold.
As Penny informed police, Penny’s lawyers told jurors that he intervened because he thought Neely may attack other passengers and that his only goal was to control him until help arrived. They further said that it was impossible to gauge the amount of pressure Penny had exerted and that Neely was not murdered by the chokehold.
According to testimony from a forensic pathologist employed by the defense, Neely’s death was caused by a confluence of his schizophrenia, synthetic marijuana, sickle cell trait, and the strain of being in Penny’s control. However, Dr. Cynthia Harris, the medical examiner who conducted Neely’s autopsy, informed jurors that, in her professional judgment, there are no other plausible explanations for his death, and the defense’s suggested explanations were so unlikely that they stand shoulder to shoulder with impossibility.
One of Penny’s lawyers, Steven Raiser, attempted to challenge Harris’ testimony during cross-examination regarding how she and her colleagues reached a consensus regarding Neely’s cause of death. Raiser implied that they hadn’t weighed all the information before coming to that conclusion.
In his closing argument last week, he brought up that claim once more.
He told the jurors, “I submit to you that there was a rush to judgment, based on something other than medical science.”
In several instances, the case caused racial and political divisions among residents in New York and beyond. Neely was Black. Penny is white. While some saw Penny’s actions as criminal and his callousness, others saw his attempt to safeguard fellow passengers as altruistic.
The tragedy also sparked discussions about the city’s subway system’s safety as well as shortcomings in dealing with mental illness and homelessness, two issues Neely had personally dealt with.Black Democrat Jumaane Williams, the public advocate for New York City, was one among the people who questioned why Penny was released from custody after being questioned by police at a station just hours after Neely’s murder. Another Democrat, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, said Neely had been killed. Renowned Republicans like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Matt Gaetz commended Penny and encouraged a fundraiser to gather over $3 million for his legal fund. Thomas Kenniff, a Republican who lost his bid for Manhattan District Attorney in 2021, is part of his defense team. Queens Republican city councilwoman Vickie Paladino was present at Penny’s final arguments last week.
Prosecutors did not contest that Neely was under the influence of synthetic cannabinoids, which were discovered in his system, or that his conduct on the train alarmed a number of passengers. Dafna Yoran, an assistant prosecutor with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, stated in her opening statement that Neely had demanded to be seen and that many people in the subway car were afraid of what he might do, even though he had not touched anyone or threatened to use a weapon.
According to her, Penny’s initial intentions were even admirable, but he acted recklessly when he kept strangling Neely even after he was no longer a threat and the train doors had opened at the next station, allowing passengers to disembark. She claimed that two additional men assisted in keeping Neely under control at that period, as evidenced by the video. According to one of those men’s testimony, he thought Penny had been in the chokehold for too long. She claimed that he occasionally even disregarded the cries of onlookers for Neely to be released. Yoran stated in her closing argument that Penny’s use of lethal physical force was not justifiable and that no one had to die.
In her final statement, Yoran reminded jurors that you simply cannot kill someone just because they are insane, yelling, and threatening. regardless of what they are saying.
Penny could have easily restrained Neely without suffocating him to death, she added.
During his closing argument, Raiser asked the jury to picture themselves on the train on the day Neely got aboard, furious and fearless of the repercussions.
He remarked, “With you sitting much as you are now in this cramped space, looking up at Mr. Neely.” You have nowhere to run and very little space to move.
Raiser claimed that Danny, as the defense lawyers called Penny during the trial, risked his life and stepped up when the cops weren’t there.
However, Yoran disputed the idea that Penny was a kind and selfless subway passenger. She said in her introductory remarks that Penny had overlooked Neely’s humanity. In her closing argument, she carried on that theme by showing jurors a video of Penny calling Neely a crackhead twice during a police interview and claiming that he never inquired about Neely’s health.
Something else is conspicuously absent from his statement. Any apologies? Any regret. She said, “Any self-reflection.” He never shows any grief at the man’s passing, she continued.
Jurors requested to view bystander footage of Penny restraint of Neely, body camera footage of responding cops, and footage of Penny’s following interview with two police detectives at a precinct during deliberations. Additionally, they requested a replay of the medical examiner’s testimony on the issuance of a death certificate prior to the completion of Neely’s entire toxicology results. They further requested that the definitions of criminal negligence and recklessness be provided in writing and that the court read them back.
Penny declined to give a statement. More than 40 witnesses testified before jurors during the trial, which started on November 1. These included two pathologists, a psychiatric expert, police officers who responded to the scene, a Marine Corps instructor who taught Penny various chokeholds, six character witnesses, including Penny’s mother and one of his sisters, and two subway passengers who saw Penny restrain Neely.
Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, filed a lawsuit against Penny on Wednesday, claiming that Penny killed Neely through negligent touch, assault, and battery. The Supreme Court of New York State, a trial-level court in the state, received the civil claim.
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