Update – 4:00 p.m. Eastern:
In a bizarre twist, after the jury returned another note to the court indicating it remained deadlocked on Count I, the prosecution moved to dismiss the count (for second-degree manslaughter) and asked the court to instruct the jury to continue considering Count II (negligent homicide). The defense objected, contending that this move was coercive, but the judge ultimately determined to proceed in that fashion. The judge dismissed the jury, telling them to return Monday to continue deliberations as to Count II.
Advertisement
Judge Wiley: I’ll take a chance and grant the People’s application. I’m going to let them go to return and consider Count 2 on Monday. Bring them in.
Jury entering!
Judge: Manslaughter in the 2d degree is dismissed. You are free to consider Count 2- on Monday— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) December 6, 2024
Original story:
Jurors in the Daniel Penny trial informed the judge Friday morning that they’re unable to come to an agreement on the top charge. The judge gave them some additional instructions and sent them back to deliberate further.
Jurors on the Daniel Penny chokehold trial returned to deliberations for a fourth day Friday for just an hour before telling the court they could not come to an agreement on the top charge, manslaughter, as they weigh the fate of a 26-year-old Marine veteran and architecture student accused of killing a mentally ill homeless man who threatened to kill people on a Manhattan subway car.
Around 11 a.m., the jurors sent a note to the court stating, “We the jury request instructions from Judge [Maxwell] Wiley. At this time, we are unable to come to a unanimous vote on court 1 – manslaughter in the second degree.”
As we reported, Jordan Neely, a homeless man with a long rap sheet and a history of mental illness, burst onto a New York City subway train in May and started threatening to kill people and getting into their faces. Former Marine Daniel Penny grabbed the assailant, restrained him, and prevented him from hurting the other passengers until police belatedly arrived.
Advertisement
Neely was still breathing when Penny released the hold and let police and first responders tend to him. However, Neely later died, and District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office inexplicably brought charges against the hero.
Penny’s defense asked jurors to put themselves in his shoes:
On Monday, Steven Raiser, Mr Penny’s attorney, asked jurors to put themselves in Mr Penny’s shoes, saying that he and other subway passengers had “very little room” to move or run when Neely’s outburst began.
“Danny acted to save those people,” Mr Raiser said. “Who would you want on the next train ride with you?”
Failure of the system:
TRAGEDY: Daniel Penny Case Shows the Utter Failure of Progressivism
As I wrote previously, the case highlights everything that is wrong with today’s justice system in too much of America:
Who and what is at fault here? It’s not Daniel Penny. You could even argue that it’s not even Jordan Neely.
It’s woke politics and progressive policies. It’s leftist politicians and soft-on-crime, George Soros-backed prosecutors like Manhattan’s Alvin Bragg—whose office filed this abomination—who put those passengers in danger. Who put Penny in a position where he had to use his hard-earned skills to protect his fellow New Yorkers.
What in the hell was Neely doing out on the streets?
Advertisement
In a healthy society, Daniel Penny would be getting a medal for his heroism pic.twitter.com/m7PQ17eQrG
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) December 4, 2024
Even New York City Mayor Eric Adams appeared to question the charges on Saturday:
“We’re now on the subway where we’re hearing someone talking about hurting people, killing people,” Adams said on the Nov. 30 episode of “The Rob Astorino Show.” “You have someone [Penny] on that subway who was responding, doing what we should have done as a city.”
Who saw this coming: As Jury Begins Deliberations, Daniel Penny Appears to Have a Surprising Voice in His Corner
The jury asked many questions of the judge as they deliberated:
The judge in the Daniel Penny trial read to the jurors the definitions of the two charges included in the Manhattan DA’s indictment.
Both charges describe a “gross deviation” from normal behavior.
The prosecution has acknowledged that Penny was acting in the defense of himself… https://t.co/C8UClKV44o
— Crime In NYC (@CrimeInNYC) December 5, 2024
It’s unsettling, to say the least, that the jury has so far been unable to agree on the fate of Penny, who faces up to 15 years in prison, and it boggles the mind that at least some of the jurors evidently want to put him behind bars. It’s a sad reflection of the New York state of mind when its own citizens advocate for its further decline.
Advertisement
I got out many years ago; many others will likely, too, as the one-time “Greatest City in the World” declines into anything but. Some of these jurors have it wrong, and it’s a travesty.
