Jurors deliberated for five days before declaring Daniel Penny not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in the death of 30-year-old Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train on 1 May 2023.

The verdict comes after prosecutors agreed to drop a more serious charge of second-degree manslaughter on Friday, as jurors could not reach an agreement.

The move allowed the jurors to move on to consider the second lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.

“We couldn’t be more pleased that a jury of Danny’s peers acquitted him of any wrongdoing,” his lawyers said in a statement afterwards.

“New Yorkers can take some comfort in knowing that we can continue to stand up for one another without sacrificing our rights or our freedoms.”

Mind you, the murderer got three million dollars in donations for his defence.

  • trashxeos@lemmygrad.ml
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    21 days ago

    I wonder what the demographics and socio-economic status of the jurors was.

    I feel like it’s white there in front of me.

    • ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml
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      21 days ago

      4 black individuals and one Philippino immigrant on a jury of 12 that had a unanimous verdict. Doesn’t seem racial biased. More so class bias.

      • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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        21 days ago

        Helped along by a class-biased legal system no doubt.

        Juries can only answer the questions they’re asked. I can see how easy it is for the judge to emphasise the relevance of any ‘doubt’ and how much a $3 million legal team would be able to cast that doubt.

        Especially in the high profile theatre of a case like this. No way did those jurors not go online or pick up a paper for the whole duration of the trial and the run up.

        On top of that, you have the prosecution backing down step by step until the jurors would say, well if even the victim’s supposed defenders don’t think this was murder, what are we supposed to do?

      • trashxeos@lemmygrad.ml
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        21 days ago

        Oh, right, jury, not school shooting suspect, I confused my versions of white privelege in that comment.