December 6, 2024
Daniel Penny manslaughter charge dismissed after jury fails to reach verdict
by Germania Rodriguez Poleo
DailyMailUK.com
Posted on 12/6/2024, 4:13:42 PM by Morgana
Daniel Penny is one step closer to freedom after a judge dismissed the top manslaughter charge against him on Friday - but he must return to court next week to face lesser charges.
Penny, a young Marine veteran, was charged with manslaughter for stepping in when Neely, a mentally ill homeless man, threatened subway passengers on an F train on an early summer afternoon in New York City in May 2023.
He placed Neely in a chokehold on the train car floor, holding him there until police arrived. Neely was declared dead in the hospital and Penny was charged.
He was vilified as a racist vigilante and lampooned by liberals. But many others took his side, heralding him a hero of a lawless city who did what no one else was prepared to do.
The jury of 12 New Yorkers were forensic with the evidence, poring over testimony transcripts and watching bodycam footage from the day in question multiple times.
But today, they announced they had failed to come to a unanimous verdict on the key charge of second degree manslaughter.
Rather than declaring a mistrial, the judge agreed to an unorthodox request from the prosecution - the top charge was dropped, and the jury has been told to come back next week to focus on count two: criminally negligent homicide.
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