A jury has reached a verdict in the trial of Daniel Penny, finding the Marine veteran not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the May 2023 subway chokehold death of subway performer Jordan Neely.
The family of Jordan Neely is moving forward with a civil lawsuit against Daniel Penny after the Marine veteran was found not guilty by a jury on Monday.
The Manhattan jury acquitted the 26-year-old man of criminally negligent homicide after the more serious manslaughter charge was dismissed because the jury was deadlocked on that count.
Neely's family decried the jury's decision outside of court, with his father demanding action against a "rigged" system.
"I just want to say, I miss my son. My son didn't have to go through this. I didn't have to go through this either. It hurts, really, really hurts," Andre Zachary said.
Last week, Zachary filed a lawsuit accusing Penny of negligence, assault and battery, which led to the death of his unarmed, 30-year-old son on May 1, 2023, on an underground train.
Zachary is seeking a judgment awarding damages “in a sum which exceeds the jurisdictional limits of all lower Courts which would otherwise have jurisdiction,” according to the lawsuit.
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Outside of court on Monday, Neely's lawyer said the civil case would move forward.
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"I promised this family that we will would justice, we're still going to do that. We're going to move forward with our suit," Dante Mills said. "The district attorney did a good job, but the jury in this case let us down."
Penny’s lawyer Steven Raiser dismissed the suit as a distraction last week.
“The timing is unfortunate as Danny is awaiting a verdict from the jury where the potential consequences are far greater than any civil suit could threaten,” he said in a statement Thursday, adding that Penny had not yet been served the complaint. “We will not be distracted by this attempt to attack Danny while he is under such tremendous stress.”
The case amplified many American fault lines, among them race, politics, crime, urban life, mental illness and homelessness. Neely was Black. Penny is white.
There were sometimes dueling demonstrations outside the courthouse, and high-profile Republican politicians portrayed Penny as a hero while prominent Democrats attended Neely’s funeral.
The verdict capped a trial that took a tumultuous turn last Friday, when jurors said they couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict on the manslaughter charge. The judge then dismissed it at prosecutors’ request — a rare one for prosecutors to make in the thick of a trial.
"What are we going to do people? What's going to happen to us now? I've had enough of this. The system is rigged," Zachary said.
