The acquittal of Daniel Penny on Monday for the 2023 choking death of Jordan Neely on a New York subway car is evidence of a “rigged” system, according to the deceased man’s father.
“It hurt me to my core, you know, to hear something like that,” Andre Zachery told ABC News on Monday after the verdict.
“I mean, it’s been like that for a long time,” he added. “And that the system could be rigged the way it is.”
Penny was acquitted on Monday of criminally negligent homicide in the death, and prosecutors dropped a more serious manslaughter charge last week as a Manhattan jury deadlocked multiple times on a verdict.
The case dealt with a May 1, 2023, incident, in which Neely, who was homeless, entered a subway car and began yelling at passengers that he was hungry and thirsty and didn’t care if he went back to jail. Some passengers also alleged Neely said he was willing to kill.
Penny, a former Marine, put Neely in a chokehold for nearly six minutes, continuing to hold the 30-year-old after some of the passengers on the train disembarked and Neely became motionless. The architecture student says he acted to defend his fellow passengers.
Monday’s ruling provoked a deeply divided response, the latest instance of the case playing into a deeply polarized debate around public safety and race.
Some celebrated the decision.
“Good news for NYC: Daniel Penny has been acquitted,” Democratic council member Robert Holden said in a statement on X. “Justice has been served for a U.S. Marine who bravely stepped up to protect fellow New Yorkers during a moment of danger.”
Others, like city councilman Yusef Salaam, who was among the wrongfully convicted Central Park Five, called the verdict “a searing indictment” of “systemic failures.”
“His killing underscores the urgent and overdue need for a complete overhaul in how we address mental health crises and homelessness,” Salaam said.
Outside the Manhattan courtroom where the ruling took places, dueling camps of protesters voiced support and disdain for Penny and Neely.
Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, a Black man choked to death by New York police in 2014, spoke to reporters outside the court, arguing that the 2023 incident fit into a larger pattern of white people using unchecked force against Black people.
“I stood here ten years ago because they did not give justice to my son with the chokehold," she said, detailing her efforts to pass an anti-chokehold police bill.
“No one deserves to be choked to death,” she added, claiming it “would’ve been a different story” if Neely had choked someone like Penny. “There’s two justice systems.”
On the night of the verdict, protesters marched through Manhattan. Another rally was planned for Tuesday outside the court.
Immediately after Neely’s death, demonstrators jumped on New York City subway tracks in protest. They reprised their protest during the deliberations, replacing subway ads with signs reading ‘A Man Was Lynched Here,’ a reference to historic anti-lynching campaigns during the Civil Rights movement.
Zachery has filed a civil lawsuit against Penny for Neely’s death.
