A Manhattan jury found Daniel Penny not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway last year. The decision came after the jury deadlocked Friday on the more serious second-degree manslaughter charge. Penny, a 26-year-old former Marine, would have faced up to 15 years in prison for a manslaughter conviction. The criminally negligent homicide charge had a sentence of up to four years. “Daniel Penny was acquitted Monday of criminally negligent homicide in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with a history of mental illness whose final moments on a New York City subway train were captured on bystander video that set off weeks of… pic.twitter.com/ZsmdUir7xb — Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) December 9, 2024 Per CNN: The jury deliberated for just over an hour on the criminally negligent homicide charge. On the second-degree manslaughter charge, they deliberated for 16 hours before telling the judge they were deadlocked, and another three hours before saying they were deadlocked again. The case stems from the death of Neely, a 30-year-old street artist who struggled with homelessness, mental illness and drugs, on a subway car on May 1, 2023. Neely entered the subway car and began acting erratically, as he threw down his jacket and yelled at passengers that he was hungry and thirsty and didn’t care whether he died, witnesses said. Penny, a passenger, grabbed Neely from behind in a chokehold, forced him to the train floor and restrained him there for several minutes. When Penny let go of the hold, Neely was nonresponsive. He was later declared dead. Several minutes of the chokehold were captured on bystander video that spread widely and has been played repeatedly in court during the trial. WATCH: BREAKING: Daniel Penny found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide. Protests erupt outside of courthouse in reaction to the verdict. pic.twitter.com/rWMKPWfMEj — Fox News (@FoxNews) December 9, 2024 Daniel Penny acquitted in lightning-rod death of Jordan Neely https://t.co/MfksIf6odL pic.twitter.com/KmEYesZPuz — New York Post (@nypost) December 9, 2024 NBC News reports: As the jury foreperson read the “not guilty” verdict, some observers in the courtroom applauded. Others began to audibly sob and yell, and were escorted out. “This is America. That is the sound of Black pain,” one person said outside of the courtroom in Lower Manhattan to the reaction. Chants of “no justice, no peace,” could be heard echoing from outside. The case divided people in New York — and beyond — in some cases along political and racial lines. Neely was Black. Penny is white. Some people viewed Penny as callous and his actions as criminal on the day he encountered Neely, who had been shouting and acting erratically when he boarded a subway train in Manhattan on May 1, 2023. Others contend Penny was selfless in his attempt to protect fellow passengers. The anonymous jury, made up of seven women and five men, were told before they began deliberating that they had to come to a unanimous decision on the top charge of manslaughter in the second degree before moving on to consider criminally negligent homicide. But Judge Maxwell Wiley changed that order Friday after jurors twice sent a note saying they could not reach an agreement.