Jury Acquits Daniel Penny Of Homicide Charges In Death Of Jordan Neely
Jury Acquits Daniel Penny in Chokehold Death of Jordan Neely
While Penny left without addressing the press, Neely’s father expressed his heartbreak at the verdict.
Editor’s note: See our coverage of Staten Island Borough President Fossella’s statement about the verdict in this case.
A jury on Monday acquitted Daniel Penny in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a crowded F train in a killing that electrified the city.
Penny, a 26-year-old former Marine, walked out of Manhattan Supreme Court a free man after the jury found he was not guilty of negligent homicide, the only remaining charge against him after a judge dismissed the top charge of manslaughter last Friday.
The ex-Marine’s six-minute chokehold of Neely, a homeless Michael Jackson impersonator with a history of mental illness and drug abuse who’d raged on the train before Penny and other passengers intervened but hadn’t physically accosted anyone, triggered contentious debates about public safety on the subways.
After the jury delivered its verdict, supporters of Neely emerged from the courtroom inflamed, with one woman wailing openly while she was comforted by another onlooker.
“Black folks is gonna have to be on alert now. We’re just going to have to take care of ourselves.” said one woman who identified herself as part of Al Sharpton’s National Action Network but declined to give her name. (Sharpton, in a statement Monday afternoon, compared Penny to “subway vigilante” Bernhard Goetz and said the acquittal represented “the blatant legalization of civilian vigilantism.”)
Penny and his lawyers left the courtroom briskly, without addressing the throngs of reporters gathered outside. He was then spotted having a drink with his defense attorneys, Thomas Kenniff and Steven Raiser, at Stone Street Tavern in the Financial District. The attorneys issued a statement saying, “New Yorkers can take some comfort on knowing that we can continue to stand up for one another without sacrificing our rights or our freedoms.”
Just after the verdict was delivered, Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, spoke to reporters outside the courthouse.
Jordan Neely’s father, Andre Zachery speaks outside Manhattan Criminal Court after Daniel Penny was acquitted in the chokehold death of his son, Dec. 9, 2024. Image Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
“I miss my son. My son didn’t have to go through this, I didn’t have to go through this either. It hurts. It really really hurts,” said Zachery, who’d been in the courtroom throughout the trial. “The system is rigged, come on people.”
Donte Mills, an attorney representing the family in a civil suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court against Penny last week, urged anyone upset by the acquittal to help a stranger in need, recalling Neely’s last words that he was hungry and thirsty.
“Everybody that’s pissed off at this verdict. I challenge you to go outside today and help one person. That’s my challenge. If you’re angry, if you’re hurt, go help one person. That’s how we beat the system.”
In a statement, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg credited his office’s prosecutors with diligently pulling together the best case they could despite facing threats and harassment over the course of the trial.
“The jury has now spoken,” Bragg said. “At the Manhattan D.A.’s Office we deeply respect the jury process and we respect their verdict.”
Politicians sympathetic to Penny were quick to celebrate the acquittal, with Republican Councilwoman Inna Vernikov calling it “poetic justice” that Penny was represented by Kenniff, who’d been Bragg’s Republican challenger in 2021.
“And now he and Penny have both prevailed against this woke, self-serving, criminal-loving DA,” she wrote on X.
‘One Man Who Was Willing To Stand Up’
On the afternoon of May 1, 2023, Neely entered the F train shouting that he was hungry and thirsty, and ready to die or go to prison for the rest of his life.
Penny then accosted the angry man, bringing him down and maintaining a chokehold until the police came even as other passengers called out that he was killing Neely
Over the course of the trial, prosecutors from Bragg’s office argued that while the ex-Marine may have had reason to intervene initially, he crossed a line by maintaining his chokehold for minute after minute even as other passengers warned he was killing Neely.
Penny’s defense attorneys countered by painting him as a good Samaritan watching out for fellow subway riders who were deeply frightened by Neely.
“The government is scapegoating the one man who was willing to stand up at the moment he was needed,” Raiser told the jury during the final days of the trial.
Prosecutors asserted Penny had ample training to know the six-minute-long headlock could prove fatal, yet ignored every sign Neely was dying.
“He kept going until a man died. He must be held accountable for that,” Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran told the jurors.
Supreme Court Judge Maxwell Wiley had dismissed the top charge of manslaughter on Friday afternoon after the jury said it had been unable to reach a unanimous verdict following three days of deliberations. Penny had still faced up to four years imprisonment had he been convicted on the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.
‘A Horrible Situation’
Neely’s death sparked days of protests and subsequent violent police crackdowns amid a vigorous citywide debate about public safety on the subways and the use of violence to maintain it.
Criminal justice-reform advocates held a protest calling for the arrest of a man who choked Jordan Neely to death on a subway, May 3, 2023. Image Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
Eric Adams, who just after Neely’s death gave an address noting that the dead man had the same name as his son and declaring that “Jordan Neely’s life mattered,” last week strongly suggested his sympathies in the trial were nonetheless with Penny.
The mayor praised Penny in a CNBC interview as “someone on that subway who was responding, doing what we should have done as a city in a state of having a mental health facility.”
Adams continued, “I do know we have a broken system of dealing with severe mental health illness in our, not only our subway system but on our streets.”
The mayor repeated both those notes at an unrelated press conference Tuesday afternoon, adding that “This isn’t the first time and I’m sure it’s not going to be the last time that individuals take action.”
Penny’s acquittal drew a harsh verdict from Gwen Carr, whose son Eric Garner died in 2014 after then NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo put him in a chokehold in Staten Island in another killing that triggered widespread protests.
“No one deserves to be choked to death,” Carr said outside the courthouse on Monday.
Gwynne Hogan, Brooklyn Reporter
Gwynne is THE CITY’s Brooklyn reporter, where she covers the latest news out of and impacting Brooklyn. More by Gwynne Hogan
Banner Image: Protesters decry a jury’s acquittal of Daniel Penny in his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court for putting Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold, Dec. 9, 2024. Image Credit: Ben Fractenberg/THE CITY
Gwynne Hogan The City
Gwynne is THE CITY’s Brooklyn reporter, where she covers the latest news out of and impacting Brooklyn.
No way is this a black and wwhite issue. Nothing of the sort. More like criminal versus law abiders.
Cranky Tom? Biting off the one and only Crank. That is sad. Can’t you pick another user name?
Anyhow, you can’t ignore that the family of the deceased was calling on the black community to “do something.”
But then I saw another video where they said specifically not to be violent and by doing something they mean positivity.
Personally, I don’t see race being the issue. More like the fact that this man was ignored by everyone, the system, passers-by, everyone. He was just an eyesore to them. He needed help. He said he was hungry.
No one stepped up at that point to direct him to a soup kitchen? I mean like WT*? Yeah yeah the guy was guilty of menacing blah blah blah but how can you ignore that they didn’t want to be bothered when he was nicely asking for help.
Face it, no one wants to deal with the homeless. They are often unpredictable and violent. I’ve seen it and that’s just me.
‘ when he was nicely asking for help.’
He did not nicely ask for help.
Still, someone could have de-escalated and tried to help.
I’ve seen a ton of violent homeless incidents. In Manhattan tho, not SI. Homeless ppl out here are homeless islanders and i think we have more decorum, even when thrown into homelessness.
With that said, if you want to help, be careful.
Many are on drugs and the drugs are not what you think. Forget the BS about Mary Jane being 20 x stronger than YOUR generation. That’s an old one. Turns out to be mostly false. But it IS true that the drugs they are on like K2 blast them to outer space for real, forget weed, this stuff is strong A*.
And homeless ppl love it. And bath salts. And crystal meth. And fentanyl. The list goes on and on. Now Crocodile. They need an escape and get hooked.
So when you approach them know they may think you are the cookie monster and may try to take a bite. Seriously.
Why don’t they stick with good old weed?
I think K2 is cheap. Packs the punch of 20 bags of weed for half the price of one bag!
Huh? That buffoon doesn’t own the word cranky. Don’t be insane.
The deceased walked on the train and got loud and said bad stuff.
He didn’t give anyone the chance to help. I am compassionate and know that he probably had a lifetime of rejection and failure and pain and suffering. Maybe this was his last straw moment, who knows. But he should have asked nicely and maybe right now he’ still be unknown but might have new connections to social services. But his experiences made him who he is.
So choking out a stranger is a law abiding act? Wow. I learn new things every day. They we both criminals after that incident. Even if the jury doesn’t think so, the facts are the facts. He’s just lucky he’s clean cut and a former Marine