NEW YORK – Jurors deliberating in the Daniel Penny trial despatched a observe to the choose Friday morning indicating they’re unable to succeed in a unanimous vote on the second-degree manslaughter cost he faces.
That observe prompted the protection to maneuver for a mistrial, because the prosecution requested for the choose to problem what’s referred to as an Allen cost to the jury to maintain them deliberating and to attain a call.
Penny, 26, is charged in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely aboard a subway final yr. The Marine veteran has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges.
Only if Penny is cleared of the extra critical manslaughter cost will the jury take into account the lesser criminally negligent murder cost. The manslaughter cost carries with it as much as 15 years in jail if convicted.
The choose instructed the jury at the start of deliberations that they have to agree on the manslaughter cost earlier than they’ll even take into account the second cost of criminally negligent murder. The jury has been instructed all alongside that in the event that they had been to seek out Penny responsible of second-degree manslaughter, the wouldn’t need to problem a call on the lesser rely.
So far, the jury has deliberated for roughly 20 hours since starting their talks on Tuesday.
The jury has sent several notes so far, requesting to observe cellphone and police bodycam footage of the incident, in addition to Penny’s interview on the police station. They additionally wished to listen to readback of the defense’s cross examination of New York City Medical Examiner Dr. Cynthia Harris, who carried out Neely’s post-mortem, and ruled his cause of death compression of the neck.
Jurors additionally requested for a part of the choose’s directions, in addition to the authorized definitions of “recklessness” and “negligence,” to be re-read to them.
Prosecutors have argued that whereas Penny’s intentions had been good in restraining Neely, he had him in a chokehold for too lengthy. Penny’s protection has argued he wasn’t utilizing stress through the maintain, simply holding Neely down. A protection witness additionally disagreed with the Medical Examiner’s cause of death determination, arguing Neely died attributable to a mixture of things together with medication and sickle cell disaster.
