NEW YORK – Jurors deliberate in the Daniel Penny trial sent a letter to the judge Friday morning indicating they could not reach a unanimous vote on the second-degree manslaughter charge.
That note prompted the defense to request a mistrial, as the prosecution asked the judge to issue a so-called Allen indictment to the jury so they could continue to deliberate and reach a decision.
Penny, 26, is charged the chokehold death of Jordan Neely aboard a subway train last year. The Marine veteran has pleaded not guilty Unpleasant manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
Only if Penny is acquitted of the more serious charge of manslaughter will the jury consider the lesser charge of negligent homicide. The manslaughter charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years if convicted.
The judge instructed the jury at the start of deliberations that they had to agree on the manslaughter charge before they could even consider the second charge of negligent homicide. The jury was told all along that if they found Penny guilty of second-degree manslaughter, they wouldn’t have to make a decision about the lesser sentence.
So far, the jury has deliberated about 20 hours since their conversations began on Tuesday.
The jury has sent several notes so farrequesting to review cell phone and police bodycam footage of the incident, as well as Penny’s interview at the police station. They also wanted to hear back defense cross-examination of New York City Medical Examiner Dr. Cynthia Harriswho performed Neely’s autopsy, and ruled his cause of death was neck compression.
Jurors also asked for some of the judge’s instructions, as well as the legal definitions of “recklessness” and “negligence,” to be read back to them.
Prosecutors have argued that Penny’s intentions were good to restrain Neely, but he kept him in a chokehold for too long. Penny’s defense has argued that he did not apply pressure during the hold, but merely restrained Neely. Also a defense witness disagreed with the medical examiner’s determination of cause of deatharguing that Neely died due to a combination of factors, including medications and sickle cell crisis.
