A Manhattan jury has acquitted Daniel Penny in the subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely at the end of a weeks-long trial that sparked a fierce debate about whether the defendant was – as others put it – a “vigilante” or a “hero”.
Penny, a 26-year-old former Marine who is white, was charged in the death of Neely, a 30-year-old unhoused Black man, which occurred on a New York City subway train last year. Penny held Neely in a lethal chokehold.
Penny was charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide following Neely’s killing, which received widespread attention. Both charges carried the potential for prison time.
On Friday, the jury in the case said it had been unable to reach a verdict on a charge of manslaughter after more than two days of deliberations. Judge Maxwell Wiley dismissed the charge and directed the panel to consider the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.
Penny was acquitted of the lesser charge after two hours of deliberations on Monday. In the courtroom, there was a burst of applause from Penny’s legal team, and the defendant was hustled out of the courtroom through a side door.
But Neely’s supporters audibly lamented the outcome, including some who were reported as visibly crying.
Earlier Monday, Penny’s defense team said they were concerned about protests outside the lower Manhattan criminal court, claiming that jurors were able to hear chants of “subway strangler” and “murderer” as they deliberated. Wiley said there were protesters from both sides outside.
Penny’s acquittal is a significant blow to the reputation of Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought charges against him as protests over Neely’s killing mounted.
Penny, 26, was accused of placing Neely, 30, in a chokehold as Neely acted erratically on an F train in SoHo on 1 May 2023.
Neely, a 30-year-old street artist and Michael Jackson impersonator, entered a New York City subway car in May 2023. Witnesses said he began yelling at passengers that he was hungry and thirsty and that he didn’t care whether he died.
Penny then caught Neely from behind and restrained him on the train floor in a chokehold that reportedly lasted for several minutes. Neely lost consciousness during the struggle and later died in the hospital. The incident was captured on video by other subway riders.
He later told police that he “just wanted to keep him from getting to people”, and described Neely as “a crackhead” who was “acting like a lunatic”.
The jury, composed of seven women and five men, entered deliberations on Tuesday.
Prosecutors argued in court that Penny’s actions were reckless and that he consciously disregarded the substantial risk of putting Neely in the chokehold for such a long period of time.
They argued that Penny’s use of lethal force should be considered unjustifiable.
Defense attorneys countered by telling the jury that Penny’s actions were only motivated by a desire to protect the subway passengers. They added that Penny never intended to kill Neely, while prosecutors said that an intention to kill is not necessary for a conviction in this case.
During the trial, jurors heard from more than 40 witnesses, including passengers who recounted that Neely had shouted he was “willing to die and go to jail” and “someone is going to die today” before Penny restrained him.
Another woman on the subway train said she feared for her life after hearing Neely’s “satanic” rant. But no witness claimed that Neely physically touched or lunged at a specific person.
The outcome of the trial is unlikely to resolve a debate in the city over safety in the subway and the fate of a troubled man who had clearly been let down by New York’s healthcare services.
The New York mayor, Eric Adams, recently criticized the “failure” of the city’s mental health system for not doing more to help Neely.
“The young man, in this case, was going within our system, throughout the revolving door of our system,” Adams told the Rob Astorino radio show. “Now, we’re on the subway where we’re hearing someone talking about hurting people, killing people.
“You have someone on that subway who was responding, doing what we should have done as a city and the state.”
