The jury in the trial of Daniel Penny advised a choose Friday morning that it couldn’t come to a unanimous determination on the highest cost of manslaughter.
Penny is charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent murder within the May 2023 chokehold demise of Jordan Neely. He faces as much as 15 years in jail if convicted of the highest cost. He has pleaded not responsible.
Jurors, who’ve been deliberating since Tuesday afternoon, despatched a notice to Judge Maxwell Wiley stating that they haven’t been in a position to agree on a verdict for the manslaughter cost. Before they started deliberations, Wiley advised the jury that it should come to a unanimous determination on that cost earlier than it may be allowed to contemplate the lesser cost of criminally negligent murder. They had been additionally instructed to resolve whether or not Penny’s actions precipitated Neely’s demise and, if that’s the case, whether or not he had acted recklessly and in an unjustified method.
Wiley advised the jury that he would talk to protection attorneys and prosecutors earlier than issuing additional steering.
Penny, a former Marine and structure pupil, had been coming from class and was on his strategy to the fitness center on the afternoon of May 1, 2023, when he encountered an erratic Neely on a New York City subway.
Neely threw his jacket to the bottom and loudly ranted about being hungry, thirsty and never caring about whether or not he died or went again to jail when he boarded the practice, witnesses have testified. Penny put him in a chokehold that prosecutors stated lasted six minutes and continued after the uptown F practice arrived at its subsequent cease, the Broadway-Lafayette station. Neely, 30, was homeless and had a historical past of psychological sickness. At the time of his demise, he had artificial marijuana — often called K2 — in his system.
Penny and his attorneys have stated that he didn’t intend to hurt Neely, solely to restrain him till police arrived. His attorneys, Thomas Kenniff and Steven Rasier, additionally disputed the reason for Neely’s demise. A metropolis medical expert discovered that Neely died from compression to his neck because of the chokehold. A forensic pathologist employed by the protection testified that Neely died from the mixed results of sickle cell disaster, artificial marijuana, schizophrenia and the wrestle from being in Penny’s restraint.
