Daniel Penny Trial: Jury Struggles to Agree on Manslaughter Charge in Chokehold Case

After jurors in Manhattan on Friday could not agree on whether Daniel Perry was guilty of manslaughter in the choking death of a disturbed subway passenger last year, the judge overseeing the case allowed prosecutors to dismiss the charge. Jurors will now consider a lesser charge, leaving unresolved a case that has come to exemplify New York’s post-pandemic struggles.

Following nearly three days of deliberations, the jurors sent two notes — one on Friday morning and a second that afternoon — to the judge, Maxwell T. Wiley, saying that they could not come to a unanimous decision about whether Mr. Penny was guilty of manslaughter in the second degree.

After the jurors’ sent the first note, Justice Wiley responded by reading the jury a so-called Allen charge, official instructions for the jurors to resume their deliberations, with the goal of reaching an agreement through the reconsideration of differing opinions.

“It’s not uncommon for juries to believe they will never be able to reach a unanimous decision,” he said, adding: “I’ll ask you to continue deliberations on that count.”

Following Justice Wiley’s instructions, the panel of seven women and five men returned to their sequestered room to discuss further. However, after about three hours, they sent another note, saying: “After further deliberations, we cannot come to a unanimous decision on count one, manslaughter in the second degree.”

Mr. Penny’s lawyers argued that the deadlock meant that the trial should be ruled a mistrial, while prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney’s office asked that the manslaughter charge be dismissed so that the jury could deliberate on the lesser charge against Mr. Penny: criminally negligent homicide.