Daniel Penny acquitted of charges in NYC subway chokehold case

A Marine veteran who used a chokehold on an agitated subway rider was acquitted on Monday in a death that became a prism for differing views about public safety, valor and vigilantism.

A Manhattan jury cleared Daniel Penny of criminally negligent homicide in Jordan Neely ’s 2023 death. A more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed last week because the jury deadlocked on that count.

Penny, who had shown little expression during the trial, briefly smiled as the verdict was read. Both applause and anger erupted in the courtroom, and Neely’s father and two supporters were ushered out after audibly reacting. Another person also left, wailing with tears.

“It really, really hurts,” Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, said outside the courthouse. “I had enough of this. The system is rigged.”

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the Democrat whose office brought the case, said prosecutors “followed the facts and the evidence from beginning to end” and respect the verdict.

The anonymous jury, which had started deliberating Tuesday, was escorted out of court to a van.

Penny’s attorneys had said he was protecting himself and other subway passengers from a volatile, mentally ill man who was making alarming remarks and gestures. Penny told detectives shortly after the encounter that Neely threatened to kill people and the chokehold was an attempt to “de-escalate” the situation until police could arrive. The veteran said he held on as long as he did because Neely periodically squirmed.

There were sometimes dueling demonstrations outside the courthouse, including Monday, when chants could be heard through the courtroom window ahead of the verdict. High-profile Republican politicians portrayed Penny as a hero while prominent Democrats attended Neely’s funeral.

Penny, 26, served four years in the Marines and went on to study architecture.



(AP Photo Stefan Jeremiah)