Daniel Penny has been cleared of all charges in the death of Jordan Neely. The Manhattan jury acquitted Penny of criminally negligent homicide on Monday, a charge that could have resulted in up to four years in prison.
The top charge of manslaughter was dropped on Friday after the jury was unable to come to a unanimous verdict.
The jury sided with Penny’s defense attorneys, who argued that the former Marine was justified in using a chokehold on Neely after he threatened train passengers. Lawyers also argued that there was insufficient evidence to prove the chokehold caused his death.
“Who would you want on the next train ride with you?” Penny’s lawyer, Steven Raiser, asked the court during his closing statement, according to the New York Post. “The guy with the earbuds minding his own business who you know would be there for you if something happened?”
“Or perhaps you just hope that someone like Jordan Neely does not enter that train when you are all alone, all alone in a crowd of others frozen with fear?”
Jurors delivered the acquittal after listening to over 40 witnesses, which included passengers who testified about Neely’s disturbing behavior before Penny leaped into action. One of the witnesses said that she was “scared sh*tless” after hearing Neely claim that he was “willing to die and go to jail” and that “someone is going to die today.”
Later, she thanked Penny for retraining Neely.
Another witness told the court that Neely went on a “satanic” rant, which resulted in her fearing for her life.
A mother who was on the train with her 5-year-old testified that she had used her stroller to barricade her son from a “belligerent and unhinged” Neely.
During the month-long trial, it was revealed that although Neely’s behavior was erratic, he was unarmed. Law enforcement disclosed that he only had a muffin in his pocket at the time of the incident.
Evidence showed that Neely had K2, a synthetic marijuana drug, in his system at the time. Jurors also learned that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and in 2021 told doctors that he heard the “devil’s voice.”
“This case is about a broken system, a broken system that does not help our mentally ill or our unhoused,” Raiser said at the end of his closing statement. “In fact, it is that broken system that led us, that is interwoven into the very fabric of this case.”
While the defense argued that Penny was justified in his actions and that the case highlighted the lack of care for mentally ill individuals, prosecutors claimed that he went “too far.”
“What’s so tragic about this case is that even though the defendant started out trying to do the right thing, as the chokehold progressed, the defendant knew that Jordan Neely was in great distress and dying, and he needlessly continued,” said prosecutor Dafna Yoran in her closing arguments.
Outside the courthouse, chaos erupted as protestors clashed with police officers, resulting in multiple arrests. Speaking out against the verdict, Black Lives Matter Greater New York co-founder Hawk Newsome said that the black community could not rely on law enforcement and that “black vigilantes” were needed.
