The acquittal last Monday of Marine veteran Daniel Penny is a blow to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg: The jury came to the common-sense judgment that Penny was justified in subduing a threatening vagrant, Jordan Neely, on a subway in May 2023.
Worse for Bragg is that his office’s own bizarre actions may have tipped the jury in Penny’s favor.
The jury of seven women and five men heard almost five weeks’ worth of arguments and evidence and deliberated for almost a week. And it ultimately came to a sound verdict on one of two charges: Penny had not acted in a criminally negligent way that led to Neely’s death.But a puzzle remains: Why did the jury deadlock on the stronger count — manslaughter, with its potential 15-year-sentence — before acquitting on the weaker count, with its possible four-year sentence?
Logic dictates that if Penny wasn’t guilty of the weaker count, he must not be guilty of the stronger count.
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Nicole Gelinas is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor at City Journal. Follow her on Twitter here. Nicole is the author of Movement: New York’s Long War to Take Back Its Streets from the Car, available now.
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