Daniel Penny jury deadlocked on manslaughter count in Jordan Neely chokehold death on NYC subway car

Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News on Dec 6, 2024

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NEW YORK — Jurors deliberating the case against Daniel Penny on Friday told the court they could not unanimously agree whether he was guilty of manslaughter for the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a subway car in 2023, but the judge told them to keep deliberating.

“At this time, we are unable to come to a unanimous vote on count 1,” read a jury note read in court at 11:04 a.m.

A short while later, Justice Maxwell Wiley instructed them to keep deliberating and said any decision they do reach must be unanimous.

But Wiley also told the parties outside of the jury’s presence that he would explore the legality of allowing jurors to come up with a verdict on the lesser count of criminally negligent homicide even if they remain hung on the manslaughter charge.

Penny’s lawyer, Thomas Kenniff, was against Wiley’s instruction and asked for a mistrial before the judge read it, arguing the instruction could be coercive and saying the case was factually uncomplicated.

Wiley said he disagreed.

If jurors find Penny not guilty of manslaughter, Wiley has told them to consider the lesser count then. It was not clear from their note whether they agreed on that count. They started their deliberations Tuesday afternoon after hearing from more than 40 witnesses.

Earlier in the morning, prosecutor Dafna Yoran told the judge, “It would be a crazy result to have a hung jury because they can’t move onto the second count.”

Penny faces a maximum sentence of up to 15 years if convicted of manslaughter, four years for criminally negligent homicide, and no minimum term.

The incident occurred aboard an uptown F train on May 1, 2023, after Neely boarded at Second Avenue. Witnesses testified that he began screaming about being hungry and not caring about whether he died or went to jail when Penny took him down from behind in a chokehold.

Prosecutors say Penny’s actions were reasonable when he sought to protect passengers on the moving train but became criminal when he continued choking him for nearly six minutes after it had stopped at Broadway-Lafayette Street and passengers fled to the platform.

His lawyers have argued he justifiably took Neely down on the train after the homeless man acted hostile toward passengers. They have also challenged the city medical examiner’s determination that he died as a result of the chokehold and not unrelated mental and physical health issues.

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