Man accused in NYC subway chokehold death acquitted, jury decides
used a chokehold on an agitated subway rider was acquitted on Monday in a death that became a prism for differing views about public safety, valor and vigilantism.A Manhattan jury delivered the verdict, clearing Daniel Penny of criminally negligent homicide in Jordan Neely’s death last year. A more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed earlier in deliberations because the jury deadlocked on that count.Both charges were felonies and carried the possibility of prison time.Penny, 26, gripped Jordan Neely around the neck for about six minutes in a chokehold that other subway passengers partially captured on video.Penny’s lawyers said he was protecting himself and other subway passengers from a volatile, mentally ill man who was making alarming remarks and gestures.
The defense also disputed a city medical examiner’s finding that the chokehold killed Neely.Prosecutors said Penny reacted far too forcefully to someone he perceived as a peril, not a person.The case amplified many American fault lines, among them race, politics, crime, urban life, mental illness and homelessness. Neely was Black.
Penny is white.There were sometimes dueling demonstrations outside the courthouse, and high-profile Republican politicians portrayed Penny as a hero while prominent Democrats attended Neely’s funeral.The verdict capped a trial that took a tumultuous turn last Friday, when jurors said they couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict on the manslaughter charge. The judge then dismissed it at prosecutors’ request — a rare one for prosecutors to make in the thick of a trial.Penny served four years in the Marines and went on to study architecture.Neely, 30, was a sometime subway performer with a tragic life story: His mother was killed and stuffed
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