Daniel Penny acquitted in subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely, sparking applause, uproar in NYC courtroom

Marine veteran Daniel Penny was acquitted by a Manhattan jury Monday in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely – a lightning-rod case that cast a light on the mayhem plaguing Big Apple subways.

Jurors cleared Penny, a 26-year-old Long Islander, of criminally negligent homicide after the fatal caught-on-camera encounter on an uptown F train last year sparked fierce debate about mental illness, public safety and vigilantism.

A suited-up Penny, who remained stone-faced for much of the four-week trial, broke out a huge smile as his not guilty verdict was read out – prompting both applause and anger inside the courtroom as the high-profile case came to an end.

Penny “finally got the justice he deserved,” one of his lawyers, Thomas Kenniff, said while celebrating with him at a bar in downtown Manhattan just hours after the verdict.

“I’m not surprised in the sense that Day 1 we knew that we believed he would be exonerated because the evidence overwhelmingly supported that.”

The verdict, which followed more than 20 hours of jury deliberations, came after the more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed by prosecutors last week after the 12 jurors — seven women and five men — deadlocked on that rap. 

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg – who quickly faced calls to resign for bringing the case against Penny in the first place — said he respected the jury’s ruling and insisted prosecutors “followed the facts and the evidence from beginning to end.”

“It really, really hurts,” Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, said after the verdict. “I had enough of this. The system is rigged.”

Follow The Post’s live blog for the latest updates on Daniel Penny’s not guilty verdict

Over the course of the four-week trial, defense attorneys painted Penny as a hero who was “fully justified” when he took down Neely – a 30-year-old troubled homeless man who witnesses said was menacing others and making threats – on an uptown F train on May 1, 2023.

They questioned, too, whether there was sufficient evidence that the chokehold caused Neely’s death – arguing he died from a mix of schizophrenia, drug use, a genetic condition and the struggle with the Marine vet.

Prosecutors tried to convince jurors that Penny was “criminally reckless” and went “way too far” while holding Neely in the chokehold for roughly six minutes – even after he appeared to stop moving on his own.

After watching footage of the fatal encounter more than a dozen times and hearing testimony from 40 witnesses, including terrified straphangers, jurors ultimately found there wasn’t proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Penny wasn’t justified in his actions. Penny could have faced up to four years behind bars if convicted of the lesser charge, and up to 15 on second-degree manslaughter.

“I think the jurors all put themselves in that subway car, heard the fear of the passengers and identified with it — and rejected the criminalization of the actions Mr Penny took in the face of clear danger,” Thomas J. Curran, a former assistant DA in Manhattan, told The Post.

“This entire incident was a tragedy all around. The social infrastructure our city maintains to support and aid troubled persons like Jordan Neely clearly failed him. Mr Penny will forever have the tragic death of Mr Neely as part of him and his life. But, the tragedy that was the death of Mr Neely does not mean that a crime occurred. Trying to make it a crime was a mistake from the start.”

Arthur Aidala, a former Brooklyn prosecutor turned criminal lawyer, speculated that the verdict boiled down to the term “reasonableness.”

“Was it reasonable for Penny to act the way he did to have the fear that he did, for himself or a third party, regarding self-defense,” Aidala said. “And I guess once they took manslaughter in the second degree off the table, they pretty swiftly reached a verdict regarding criminally negligent homicide.”

News of the verdict, meanwhile, sparked an immediate reaction across the Big Apple – and the rest of the country – as some lawmakers claimed the DA’s office politicized the case and tried to turn Penny into a villain as crime spirals on the streets and underground.

“There are people in the [DA’s] office who are quietly relieved that he was found not guilty,” a source inside Bragg’s office told The Post. “You can’t say they are happy because someone did die, but they don’t think he was tried because he committed a crime, but rather because of politics which should never happen.”

Others, including Mayor Eric Adams, argued the case highlighted a broken system that failed Neely and others suffering from mental health issues or drug dependency.

“Jordan should not have had to die, and, I strongly believe as I’ve stated from day one, that we have a mental health system that is broken,” Hizzoner said when asked if the verdict was a reflection of New Yorkers being fed up with the system.

“New Yorkers have always been tired of things that allow people who commit violent acts to be part of a revolving door system,” he said.

— Additional reporting by Larry Celona and Aneeta Bhole