Former Marine Daniel Penny was found not guilty today (Monday) of criminal responsibility for the death of Jordan Neely, in a closely watched case in New York City involving complicated questions of crime, race, and mental illness, according to The Free Press reporter Olivia Reingold.
According to Reingold, the courtroom erupted in applause upon hearing the verdict.
Penny had encountered Neely on a New York City subway in May 2023. Neely, a homeless man with a long history of arrests and mental illness, began threatening the passengers, and Penny tried to restrain him using a chokehold, shortly after which Neely died.
Opinions in the public and among politicians became sharply divided from the start, with some accusing Penny of unnecessary and even racially motivated killing and others praising Penny for standing up and protecting passengers from a potentially dangerous and unstable individual.
Penny had been charged with second degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, and the prosecutor in the case tried to separate the charges after he was cleared of the manslaughter charge, perhaps with the hope that he would nevertheless be convicted on the lesser charge.
The jury disagreed, and Daniel Penny is now a free man.
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