The second-degree manslaughter charge against Marine Corps veteran Daniel Penny was dismissed on Friday after jurors failed to reach a verdict in the subway chokehold trial.
According to Fox News, Judge Maxwell Wiley told the jury on Friday afternoon that they were free to consider the criminally negligent homicide charge against Penny after dismissing the second-degree manslaughter charge.
“Manslaughter in the second degree is dismissed,” Wiley told the jury. “What that means is you are now free to consider count two. Whether that makes any difference, I have no idea.”
According to Fox News, Penny was charged after putting Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia, in a chokehold after Neely threatened to kill passengers on a New York City subway train last year while high on drugs and experiencing a psychotic episode. At the time, Neely threatened that someone was going to “die today” and that he did not care if he went to prison for life.
Fox News reported that Penny placed Neely in a chokehold in order to prevent the 30-year-old from hurting other people. However, Neely died following the chokehold incident.
READ MORE: Video: Man shot in the head on busy NYC subway
Amid the jury’s deadlock on Friday, Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Dafna Yoran asked for the second-degree manslaughter charge to be dismissed to allow the jury to consider the criminally negligent homicide charge. Penny could face up to four years in prison if convicted on the second charge.
Fox News reported that Wiley agreed to Yoran’s request and sent the jury members home until Monday, when the jurors will consider Penny’s second charge.
According to Fox News, after roughly an hour of jury deliberation on Friday, the jury sent a note to the court, which read, “We the jury request instructions from Judge [Maxwell] Wiley. At this time, we are unable to come to a unanimous vote on count 1 – manslaughter in the second degree.”
While Wiley sent the jury back to continue deliberating, the jury informed the court around 3 p.m. that they were still not able to come to a unanimous decision, resulting in the dismissal of the second-degree manslaughter charge.
“A deadlocked jury on the top charge is not a victory for the defendant in a case that should never have been brought to begin with,” Paul Mauro, a former New York Police Department inspector, told Fox News. “Daniel Penny is a young man spending thousands on attorneys, he faces a civil case, and a district attorney’s office that has chosen ideology over law enforcement may well retry him if we get a mistrial. His liberty remains at risk. This is not justice.”