Deliberations in Daniel Penny trial end for the day
NEW YORK -- Deliberations ended Wednesday without a verdict in the trial of Daniel Penny, charged in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on the subway last year.
Deliberations began Tuesday afternoon. Between Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon, the jury has been deliberating for at least nine hours, approximately. They will resume on Thursday morning.
Jurors sent two notes to the judge on Wednesday, requesting to see a video compilation depicting the events from May 1, including body camera video, witness cell phone video, and Penny's station house interview, and readback of certain testimony given by the medical examiner who performed Neely's autopsy.
That follows a note sent Tuesday afternoon requesting a readback on justification defenses and the definitions of the crimes charged.
The jury of seven women and five men are deciding if Penny is guilty of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in Neely's death.
Witnesses said Neely was acting erratically on board a train last May.
Penny's defense team said he was protecting subway riders and only intended to restrain Neely and hold him for police. Prosecutors say the Marine veteran behaved recklessly when he gripped Neely by the neck for nearly six minutes.
City medical examiners ruled that Neely died from compression of the neck, but a pathologist hired by the defense contradicted that finding, attributing he death to a variety of other factors, including drug use, and sickle cell crisis.
If jurors convict Penny of the more serious charge of manslaughter, which carries up to 15 years in prison, they won't be asked to return a verdict on the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide, which carries a potential four-year sentence.
