On Monday, jurors declared former Marine Daniel Penny not guilty of criminally negligent homicide. This decision came after the judge permitted them to consider the less severe charge, having dismissed the manslaughter charge on Friday. The case has been contentious, stemming from Penny’s use of a chokehold on a homeless Black man in a New York City subway car in 2023.
Multiple news outlets confirmed Penny’s acquittal on the charge.
Judge Maxwell Wiley, overseeing the case, allowed jurors to deliberate on the criminally negligent homicide charge after initially instructing them to first address the more serious manslaughter charge. He advised jurors to reflect on the charge over the weekend.
A manslaughter conviction could have led to a prison sentence exceeding ten years.
On Friday, jurors twice reported being unable to reach a unanimous decision on the manslaughter charge. In response, Judge Wiley urged them to make every effort to decide, reading them an “Allen charge,” which is an instruction given to a deadlocked jury to encourage a verdict.
The trial, which lasted seven weeks, included testimony from dozens of witnesses. Jury deliberations began on Tuesday afternoon.