Jury in Daniel Penny trial deliberates lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide
NEW YORK -- Jury deliberations resumed Monday in the Daniel Penny subway chokehold trial, but jurors only needed to consider one lesser charge. Jurors returned a verdict of not guilty on the criminally negligent homicide charge.
The jury was deadlocked most of the day Friday on the other more serious charge Penny faced. His defense asked for a mistrial, but the judge sided with prosecutors' request to drop the second-degree manslaughter charge entirely.
Jurors then considered one count of criminally negligent homicide, which carries a maximum sentence of up to four years in prison. The jury got the case last Tuesday and had been deliberating for more than 20 hours.
About 15 protesters lined up outside the courthouse Monday, chanting "justice for Jordan Neely." Inside, Penny's defense team asked for a mistrial and once again was denied.
To convicted on a criminally negligent homicide charge, jurors needed to be convinced on three key points:
- That Penny caused Neely's death
- That he did so with criminal negligence
- That he was not justified in his actions
Penny, a Marine veteran, pleaded not guilty in the death of Neely last May on an F train in SoHo. Witnesses said Neely was acting erratically, screaming that he was hungry and not afraid to go back to jail.
Prosecutors argued while Penny's intentions were good in restraining Neely, he placed Neely in a chokehold for too long. Penny's defense said he wasn't applying pressure and just had Neely in a hold.
What jurors heard throughout Daniel Penny trial
The jury of five men and seven women heard testimony from dozens of witnesses, including passengers, responding police officers, Penny's Marine Corps martial arts instructor and the medical examiner who performed Neely's autopsy.
She told jurors "that chokehold for that amount of time would kill anyone," saying a medical condition and drugs in Neely's system were not the cause.
The defense called Penny's mother, sister and former Marine platoon sergeants to the stand, as well as a forensic pathologist who contradicted the medical examiner's ruling, saying he believed Neely's cause of death was the "combined effect of sickle cell crisis, the schizophrenia, the struggle and restraint and the synthetic marijuana"
Jurors also saw autopsy photos, some of Neely's psychiatric records and the bench warrant out for his arrest.
Penny did not testify, but his stationhouse interview was played, along with police bodycam video of him speaking.