Daniel Penny found NOT GUILTY of criminally negligent homicide

BREAKING: Daniel Penny found NOT GUILTY of criminally negligent hom*cide.

Praise God.

Jordan Neely's father was reportedly removed from the courtroom for speaking out.

The Daily Caller reports:

A Manhattan jury has found Daniel Penny not guilty on criminally negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely.

Marine veteran Penny, 26, placed 30-year-old Neely in a chokehold after the older man began acting erratically on a New York City subway, according to law enforcement. Witnesses said Neely, a homeless man, was yelling and acting erratically on the F train after boarding, adding that they felt threatened by his behavior. Prosecutors said Penny held Neely in a chokehold for approximately six minutes.

The more serious charge of second-degree manslaughter was dismissed last week after the jury was hung.

Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced the charges against Daniel Penny on June 28, 2023. Penny faced as many as 15 years behind bars. The veteran and architecture student pleaded not guilty.

New York City and the state of New York have faced an uptick in crime in recent years. City residents have said that the general quality of life has decreased as violent crime has risen, with under half of New Yorkers saying they felt safe using the subway in 2023. Liberal prosecutors, including Bragg, have been criticized for “soft-on-crime” policies, including a refusal to prosecute repeat-offenders. Jordan Neely was arrested 42 times prior to the subway altercation.

Pundits have argued that Penny being white while Neely was black played a role in the veteran being charged by Bragg’s office. Penny’s defense requested a mistrial, telling the judge that protesters were issuing veiled threats against the jurors. The judge denied the motion.

Penny gave his perspective of the incident in a June 2023 interview with Law&Crime Network.

He told the outlet Neely boarded the subway while appearing to be on drugs, then behaved erratically toward others while yelling. Penny said he took out his headphones. “The three main threats that he repeated over and over was, “I’m going to kill you,’ ‘I’m prepared to go to jail for life’ and ‘I’m willing to die,'” the veteran told the outlet.

Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran wrapped up her closing arguments Tuesday. She told the jury that “as the chokehold progressed, the defendant knew that Jordan Neely was in great distress and dying, and he needlessly continued.”

She said Monday that Neely boarded the F train in an “extremely threatening manner” but claimed “so much less than deadly physical force would have done the job of protecting the passengers from Mr. Neely,” according to ABC News.

H/T Collin Rugg

COLLIN ON X: @CollinRugg