On Monday, The New York Post reported:
A Manhattan jury has cleared Daniel Penny of criminal wrongdoing in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a crowded subway — a caught-on-video killing that sparked fierce debate over the city’s mental health system and crime underground.
The panelists acquitted Penny of criminally negligent homicide — which could have put him behind bars for up to four years — in Neely’s chokehold death aboard a crowded uptown F train in May 2023.
Manslaughter, the top charge against Penny, was tossed on Friday after jurors twice said they couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict.
Jurors sided with Penny’s defense attorneys, who had argued that the Marine veteran was justified in rushing to protect his fellow subway straphangers when he subdued the erratic homeless man. The lawyers had also questioned whether there was sufficient evidence that the chokehold caused Neely’s death.
This is wonderful news. Basically, the story is that a heroic former Marine saved a subway car full of innocent travelers from possible serious harm at the hands of someone who belonged in a mental institution. I pray that if I ever ride the New York City subways again (I rode them to commute to school in the 1960’s), there will be someone like Daniel Penny on the train with me.
