NEW YORK (AP) — The judge in Daniel Penny’s subway chokehold murder trial urged jurors to continue their deliberations Friday morning after they told him they could not reach a unanimous vote on the main charge.
The jury had sent a note to Judge Maxwell Wiley saying they were “unable to reach a unanimous vote on Count 1.”
Wiley then read them a so-called Allen indictment – an order urging them to make every effort possible to reach a verdict.
Penny’s lawyers objected to the judge reading the order to the jury, suggesting it could be a case of “coercion.” However, the judge refused, saying the case was factually complicated.
Penny, a Navy veteran, is charged with manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of Jordan Neely, whom Penny held in a chokehold for approximately six minutes on a New York subway on May 1, 2023.
Penalties for negligent homicide range from a suspended sentence to a prison sentence of up to four years. The manslaughter charge, a more stern crime, carried up to 15 years.
Involuntary manslaughter is a stern “criminal conduct” that involves not being aware of such a danger. In the case of manslaughter, however, proof is required that a defendant recklessly caused the death of another person.
Prosecutor Dafna Yoran noted that “it would be a crazy result if the jury were empty” just because they couldn’t get to the second count.
The jury has made several inquiries to the judge since deliberations began on Tuesday.
They asked to see the video of police and bystanders at the center of the trial. They demanded a reading of testimony from a city coroner during the month-long trial. They also asked the judge to reread the criminal definitions of recklessness and negligence in open court and to obtain written copies of the statute.
During the month-long trial, the anonymous jury heard from witnesses, police officers, pathologists, a Marine Corps instructor who trained Penny in chokehold techniques, and Penny’s relatives, friends and fellow Marines. Penny chose not to testify.
Penny’s lawyers said he was protecting himself and other subway passengers from an erratic, mentally ill man who made disturbing comments and gestures.
Prosecutors said Penny responded far too forcefully to someone he viewed as a danger rather than a person.
Neely, 30, was a former Subway performer with a tragic life story: When he was a teenager, his mother was killed and stuffed in a suitcase. His adult life was marked by homelessness, psychiatric hospitalizations, drug abuse and criminal convictions, including for assaulting people in subway stations.
Penny, 26, then studied architecture. He is white. Neely was black.
The case became a flashpoint in the national debate over racial injustice and crime, as well as the city’s ongoing struggle to address homelessness and mental health crises on a transit system used daily by millions of New Yorkers.
Dueling demonstrations sometimes occurred outside the courthouse, and senior Republican politicians portrayed Penny as a hero while prominent Democrats attended Neely’s funeral.
