Daniel Penny – Manslaughter Charge Dismissed After Jury Deadlock, Court Tells Jury To Consider Negligent Homicide
Jury deliberations on the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide will continue Monday after Judge granted prosecution’s request to drop manslaughter to avoid a mistrial.
The jury in the Daniel Penny case deadlocked on the Second Degree Manslaughter count, even after the judge gave them an ‘Allen Charge’ to keep deliberating. The court could either declare a mistrial (as the defense requested) or grant the prosecution’s request to dismiss the manslaughter charge and allow the jury to proceed to consider the lower criminally negligent homicide charge.
The court granted the prosecution’s request, dismissed the manslaughter charge, and the jury will return Monday to deliverate on the lesser charge. CNN reports:
A judge granted the prosecution’s motion to dismiss the more serious charge of second-degree manslaughter against Daniel Penny on Friday in his trial over the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway last year, clearing the way for the jury to consider the remaining lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.
The ruling came after a Manhattan jury said they were deadlocked twice on the charge. Penny’s defense attorneys maintained their motion for a mistrial.
Over defense objections, Judge Maxwell Wiley agreed with prosecutors who argued that dismissing the first count of second-degree manslaughter eliminates the defense’s concern about a compromise verdict.
Wiley told the jury that the second-degree manslaughter charge has been dismissed “functionally,” allowing them to now consider the remaining charge of criminally negligent homicide.
The jury has been dismissed for the day and jurors will return Monday morning to continue deliberations.
Shortly before the judge’s ruling, lead prosecutor Dafna Yoran had indicated her office would be willing to drop the second-degree manslaughter charge if the jury could move on to consider the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.
MORE TO FOLLOW
BREAKING: The mansl*ughter charge against Daniel Penny has been dropped after the judge granted the prosecution’s request.
Jury deliberations on the remaining charges will resume Monday.pic.twitter.com/btmu008yKZ
— Dennis Michael Lynch (@TrustDML) December 6, 2024
So now the judge has dismissed the first count on second-degree manslaughter and is allowing the jury to consider the second count after the weekend. This is precisely what Bragg was hoping for in setting up a possible compromise verdict…
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) December 6, 2024
I'm sorry, but I am finding it hard to believe this is proper. The jury has twice now said they are deadlocked. That's a hung jury on that count.
The judge is effectively dismissing it (but can he?) so they can consider C2.
I can't find a single case supporting this approach. https://t.co/gIAyslAkvf— LB (@beyondreasdoubt) December 6, 2024
I did a bit of legal research, and I believe the judge in the Daniel Penny case erred in granting the prosecutor’s motion to dismiss the manslaughter charge and instructing the jury to consider the lesser included offense of criminally negligent homicide instead.
In New York… pic.twitter.com/FeCEzkLYkD
— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) December 7, 2024
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Comments
This judge is a stain on society. He is the worst sort of insidious criminal that destroys decent societies.
Maybe the judge will decide to withhold food and water from the jury on Monday to help them along with their “deliberations”? Call it the “mega-Alvin charge” to the jury.
The New York judiciary (city and state) is a friggin cesspool and repository of malevolent retards. New York most definitely does NOT have a “Republican form of government”. Not in the least.
NYC sure has some interesting judges, that’s for sure.
Clearly he did not commit homocide, so let the matter end.
Hopefully, the jury will end it Monday by an acquittal.
If the so-called “jury” could not acquit on the second degree charge then there is ZERO chance of an acquittal on the negligence charge.
This is all insane.
Time can work wonders. Those pushing for guilt may understand the error of their ways.
Even if it was just one juror who wouldn’t acquit for manslaughter second, that one juror certainly won’t acquit for negligent manslaughter. OTOH, if it was just one juror who wouldn’t convict for manslaughter second, he might convict for negligent manslaughter. The same applies to a larger minority.
Nothing good is going to come out of this jury.
Prefer to let it happen, rather than speculate over what is unknown.
I like to do both.
This is a joke, and not a funny one.
The very fact that the prosecutor was allowed to repeatedly refer to Penny in court as ‘the white man’ is such a slam-dunk reversal on appeal it isn’t even funny.
She should have been immediately and publicly censured and sanctioned by the judge and a mistrial declared.
But as always with these cases, the judge and prosecutor simply don’t care. They want their precious conviction, and they don’t CARE if it gets reversed on appeal.
Did the judge really do that? Repeatedly refer to him as “the white man”?! Gosh, that is so bizarre. He’s sitting right there; no need to mention his race….
Not the judge, the prosecutor. Yes, when questioning witnesses, she REPEATEDLY referred to ‘the white man’, asking such insanely racially charged questions like, ‘and what did THE WHITE MAN do next’.
WOW. Anyone think this could be the basis for a bar complaint?
LOL.
Look at the bar you would be complaining to.
I am extremely surprised the judge allowed it. Prejudicial comments are barred by binding US Supreme Court precedent.
Automatic grounds for mistrial.
Remember the rittenhouse trial where the prosecutors were repeatedly warned
“Over defense objections, Judge Maxwell Wiley agreed with prosecutors who argued that dismissing the first count of second-degree manslaughter eliminates the defense’s concern about a compromise verdict.”
I don’t understand this twice. Prosecution says they are acting to eliminate a defense concern. Defense objects. Logically, that should kill the debate right there.
The “compromise verdict” has already been set up. It remains a possibility, because the judge is now asking the jury to not imagine a purple elephant.
And the judge wasted everyone’s time by instructing the jury that they must make a decision on manslaughter before proceeding to lesser included charges. Now the judge has decided to rewrite the the indictment and law. It’s as if he instructed the jury from the start, “hey don’t worry about the main charge, ignore that and convict on lessers, whatever you need to do to get this guy on something.” How I hate NYC.
Derek Chauvin was just stabbed 21 times in the prison library! That is what this hero has to look forward to if convicted. The judge basically said, well go back and convict him of something then.
Don’t ever come to the aid of strangers, and if you must defend yourself, flee the scene and leave nobody alive to identify you!
Sadly this is the only logical conclusion. It’s one thing to create the traditional societal expectation that good Men step between the weak and danger…it is quite another thing entirely to maintain that expectation when society will then not only turn their back on the defender but seek his ruination.
Outside the physical danger of the event there’s potential civil and criminal prosecution. There’s medical bills, not just for the defender, but those of the dangerous people the defender may be forced to pay. There will absolutely be Attorneys to pay, potential civil judgements and the costs of a criminal defense.
Apart from those significant impacts are the probability of reduced lifetime earnings due to publicity of the defender. If convicted, who will pay to keep the defender’s family fed, housed, clothed and cared for? Heck will someone even take in his dog to will his dog be put down as well?
When society rebukes the current lefty criminal as hero mindset, reforms the laws and returns to prior era common sense then society can again make an argument that good Men have a duty to act in defense of the weak.
Having tried over 75 jury trials, only a fool believes that he can predict an outcome, much less the reason for it. I remain astounded that this trial has ever come into being. Something’s very rotten in Denmark.
DISMISS Charges. Certainly request new venue if no
About ri
Damn AI. About right from the left claim the scalp of the only guy to do anything. We wouldn’t want anyone else making a stand.
This judge apparently watched the two ultra-morons who presided over the Trump trials in NY and said to his staff: Hold my beer. I can find no one who’s ever seen something like this happen. While juries will sometimes deadlock on one charge while convicting on others, it doesn’t happen like this. The state moved to dismiss the 1st count that where the lack of verdict on that count was the impediment to the jury considering the 2nd count. The jury form is clear. Halfway through the deliberations, the judge is saying, ‘So, about that jury form, let’s just ignore the part that’s giving you problems.’ No way this should be allowed.
Yes, but you’re probably thinking of other states that afford a defendant due process of law under their state and the federal constitutions. This is NYC.
If this turns out “rotten in Denmark’ let’s hope Alan Dershowitz gets involved in the appeal.
Irony- I just finished listening to Trey Gowdy’s book “It doesn’t hurt to ask”
Near the front- he talks about his love of the courtroom because of the RULES. The rules are good. Good, not because they are used in a courtroom, but used in a courtroom BECAUSE they are good.
So we are no longer using rules. Bah-nan-nuh Reee-pooob- bleak.
One judge does not have the power to unmake the United States as a rule of law country.
He certainly has made a mockery of it but would there even be a question of this in Turkey or China?
Hopefully there is at least one juror with courage and a firm belief in justice who refuses to convict. There is no way in a sane court that a jury would send this honors and courageous citizen to prison or find guilty of doing anything but his duty as a man and a American citizen.
“Please consider consolation charge to make BLM happy.”
Disgusting. Acquittal is the only just sentence here. Let them burn NYC. I don’t care.
The second charge stems from the first. Manslaughter applies to accidental death as a result of criminal or reckless action and can either be voluntary or involuntary.
Criminal Homicide is just a subset of manslaughter — a specific criminal action.
If you are acquitted of, or cannot be charged with manslaughter, it is highly unusual to attach a criminal intent to an unintentional death unless the action is so negligent it boggles the mind.
What these prosecutors did is pad the charges so a harsher sentence can be imposed — a jury finding guilt on manslaughter can also return an attached criminally negligent homicide verdict of guilty.
Or, the prosecutors could have gone for negligent homicide, but they knew that would not result in any significant jail time, if any at all.