Daniel Penny jury says it hasn’t been able to reach a unanimous verdict
[NOTE: Please see UPDATE in this new post.]
The jury is deadlocked on the charge of manslaughter in the second degree after three days of deliberation. Penny is facing a second lesser charge as well: criminally negligent homicide, which carries a maximum of four years.
The judge told the court that the jury can’t move on to that second charge unless it finds defendant Penny Not Guilty of the first count, and also gave the jury what’s known as an Allen charge, “which are instructions reminding the jurors of how much time and money has gone into the case and how imperative it is that they reach a decision.”
Deliberations have resumed.
It would be good to know if the holdouts are those saying Guilty or those saying Not Guilty. And the judge’s statement about not moving to the lesser charge without a Not Guilty on the first is interesting, in that it would prevent a deadlocked jury from a finding of Guilty on the lesser charge as a compromise verdict.
My personal opinion, from what I’ve read about this case, is that Penny should not spend a day in prison and should be found Not Guilty of both charges. I think it’s wrong that he was charged in the first place. I’ll add that I don’t like Allen charges; I don’t think jurors should change opinions to save the state money and time. At a certain point it’s a hung jury, and so be it. Would Bragg retry this case if that happened? He might just be the person to do it.
This also may be as good a place as any to mention a perception I’ve had from the start, which is that Penny reminds me of Billy Budd. When I first saw his photo (please click on that link), that’s what came to me.
From the movie:
If you’re familiar with the Melville story’s complex plot, you may see the relevance, which isn’t entirely cosmetic.
NOTE: By the way, I had to read “Billy Budd” as a high school sophomore, along with lots of other Melville. Not easy reading. And this was in a NYC public high school, albeit in an honors class. There was nothing special about my high school, either, at that time.
Carl Benjamin sees another resemblance (see link for photo):
https://x.com/Sargon_of_Akkad/status/1865120228746613132
sdferr:
A similar look there to Billy Budd and to Penny, I think.
“Billy Budd, Foretopman” is the full title, if memory serves.
Foretopman indicates reefing of sails at top of mast, an extreme hazard, done with bare feet, including clamber up the mast-holding ropes.
This case is somewhat similar to the George Floyd death.
Neely was alive when the police arrived, and Penny let him out of the restraining hold. Neely had a large amount of drugs in his system and other health issues. As did George Floyd.
There were dueling medical examiners opinions as to the cause of death. One blamed the drugs and pre-existing medical issues as the cause of death. The other opined it was Penny’s “choke” hold. As I recall there were dueling medical examiner’s opinions in Floyd’s case.
There are two reasons Penny is being tried. The first is that Neely is black, and Penny is white. BLM raised a stink about this case, and of course, Bragg accommodated them.
BLM political pressure was a huge part of the George Floyd case.
The second is that Neely was a known criminal with a long rap sheet and mental health problems. Had Bragg and his assistants done their jobs, he would not have been on the streets. IMO, Bragg and his department, not Penny, should be on trial for negligence in enforcing the law.
We read Melville every year in high school. Moby Dick, Billy Budd, Benito Cereno,, short stories and novellas, etc. I greatly enjoyed all his work. Faulkner and Henry James, not at all. As for Flannery O’Connor, I didn’t know what to think at the time. Now I think she’s a genius.
Did anyone here see Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri? It’s my contention that this film was influenced by O’Connor’s fiction, to the extent that it was a deliberate homage. In one scene, in the sheriff’s office, there are several books on the sheriff’s desk. At least one is a Flannery O’Connor novel. A subtle reference, easy to miss — but quite telling.
Not coincidentally, I liked that movie a lot.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14154045/daniel-penny-verdict-jordan-neely.html
If Penny is Billy Budd, Bragg is Claggert. As evil a man as there ever was in literature. Robert Ryan was scary in the role.
I wonder if this “unorthodox” move by the prosecution will leave room for an appeal if there is a conviction on the lesser charge.
Coercion is quite common under The Rule of Law. Knew prosecutors, Federal agents, Police officers & Detectives (‘police officer using threats, promises, and coercion to obtain a statement‘), etc. used it, but hadn’t realized that Judges also use it…
Looks like Jurors & Daniel Penny caught a break – as sdferr links above to Daniel Penny manslaughter charge dismissed article…
Neo: “My personal opinion, from what I’ve read about this case, is that Penny should not spend a day in prison and should be found Not Guilty of both charges. I think it’s wrong that he was charged in the first place.”
Totally agree – and it is a mockery of justice that he has even been put through this. It is a sort of mental torture to put him through this, not knowing what his future might be when he was only trying to help save others from harm.
Please see UPDATE.
Re: Allen charge
If the state thinks it spent too much time and money on the case, well, the state chose to press that charge, chose to spend that time and money, and the state can withdraw the charge.
My job as a juror is to determine if the defendant’s actions warrant punishment, and to protect him from the state if they do not (in part because the next wrongfully accused defendant could be me.) The judge whining about the price of a conviction is going to push me to acquit.
Bragg as Claggart? But Bragg is not the dead one.
“Struck down by an angel of God! — Yet the angel must hang!”
Philip Sells:
A little like Billy Budd. Certainly not exactly.
In one of the Hornblower novels, the protagonist faces a dilemma similar to that faced by Captain Vere in Billy Budd. Hornblower’s steward..of whom the captain is very fond and who has improved his cuisine and life greatly, loses his temper and strikes a superior. There seems nothing for it but a court martial and its inevitable outcome.
But Hornblower finds a deus ex machina. They are in a neutral harbor, with an American ship anchored nearby, within swimming distance. And England is at war with the United States.
I believe Melville was himself a foretopman when he served aboard an American warship…in his book White Jacket, he described working on the top yard, can’t remember which mast.
It’s a pretty good book. Melville was fortunate that his immediate superior up above the deck was a man with a great love for Portuguese poetry.
Aside to Neo: (Had to read Moby Dick by Melville in my high school honors class, and, of course, disect the story and analyze the grammatical tools Melville used. Our final paper had to be writing an original story using all the grammatical tools, or, similarly, a satire in the form of Alexander Pope’s “Rape of the Lock,” writingseveral hundred lines of iambic pentameter, using the grammatical tools in the original. I specifically chose the latter because I just couldn’t see myself writing a story like Melville’s with scatalogical language for my male English teacher to read (I’m female). For at least a month I was thinking in iambic pentameter! Don’t know how I made it through! lol
PS I’m a longtime New Yorker, used to (operative phrase “used to”) ride the subway regularly. I don’t think Penny should ever have been prosecuted. Yes, over time there are disturbed persons coming through the cars begging. Never did I (thank goodness) experience a serious mentally disturbed criminal threatening – no, promising – murder if he didn’t get what he wanted even if it meant he would have to spend the rest of his life in jail! Alvin Bragg should have to spend just an hour in a locked subway car, packed with other petrified passengers – women, men, and children/babies. Alvin Bragg isn’t a shrinking violet – at least with the power of his position. Wonder what he would do…
Cindy Simon:
Bragg is quite the piece of work. He’s done a great deal of damage to NYC and set terrible precedents in this prosecution and of course in prosecuting Trump.
But as a child I did encounter someone at least somewhat like Jordan Neely on the subway, the old IRT line. The story is here.