Daniel Penny Found Not Guilty In Jordan Neely's Death

Yesterday at 01:21 PM

Daniel Penny, the former Marine who placed Jordan Neely in a chokehold on a subway train last year, was found not guilty of his death after the jury had deadlocked on a manslaughter charge.

On Monday (Dec. 9), Daniel Penny, who choked fellow subway passenger Jordan Neely on an uptown-bound F train last year, was acquitted on the charge of criminally negligent homicide. The decision came after the jury had previously been deadlocked on a charge of manslaughter, which the presiding judge dismissed last Friday (Dec. 6). The verdict means that the former Marine is a free man.

Neely, a 30-year-old unhoused man, boarded the F train last May shouting loudly and behaving randomly. Penny, 24, managed to get behind Neely and placed him in a chokehold to subdue him, with other passengers assisting. Video footage showed Neely, who is Black, struggling to get out of Penny's hold for several minutes. Neely would be rushed to the hospital after police arrived, where he died due to compression of the neck, which was confirmed by the medical examiner. Penny would be charged the next month.

The case would become a fiercely debated flashpoint locally in New York City and nationwide, with conservatives and right-wingers rallying around Penny, who is white. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called him a “Good Samaritan.” Observers compared it to the incident 40 years ago where Bernard Goetz, who was white, shot four Black teenagers on the subway claiming he was a target for being mugged by them.

"Jordan Neely was failed by the city's social service system for years. He was failed by our city when Daniel Penny put him in a chokehold on the subway. And today, Jordan was failed once again, this time by the city's justice system, following the jury's decision to acquit Penny of criminally negligent homicide," wrote City Council members Sandy Nurse, Shahana Hanif, Jennifer Gutiérrez, Carmen de La Rosa, Kevin C. Riley and Crystal Hudson in a joint statement condemning the decision. As Penny was ushered away from the courthouse by his lawyers, Neely's father, Mr. Zachery, spoke to reporters about the decision while surrounded by supporters, including the Reverend Al Sharpton. "I just want to say I miss my son," he said after struggling with emotion for several minutes, adding: "It hurts. It really, really hurts."