Political commentators and legal experts react to the update on the trial of Daniel Penny

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is trying to “arm” the jury in the Daniel Penny case into deciding a verdict by dismissing the manslaughter charge even though it appears deadlocked, says former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy McCarthy.

“Bragg added an unfounded charge of recklessness to the charge, leaving the jury with two counts, increasing the likelihood of a conviction by giving the jury something to compromise on,” McCarthy wrote in the National Review.

The involuntary manslaughter charge required prosecutors to prove that Penny acted recklessly when he placed mentally ill homeless man Jordan Neely in a chokehold on May 1, 2023, according to court testimony.

Involuntary manslaughter charges against Daniel Penny dismissed as jury adjourns for the weekend

Political analysts, commentators and legal experts reacted after New York Judge Maxwell Wiley approved Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s request to consider a charge of involuntary manslaughter. (Fox News)

The judge initially ruled that the jury could not deliberate on the second count unless they found Penny not guilty of manslaughter for a reason other than that the chokehold was justified. However, after jurors said they were deadlocked for a second time, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran asked that the main charge be dismissed to give jurors a chance to debate the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum sentence is punishable by four years in prison.

“The jury was today Allen– accused of trying to force them to decide on the count, even though they indicated after three days that they were deadlocked,” McCarthy wrote.

McCarthy said he believes Bragg’s strategy in the case against Penny is to push forward on two counts, manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter, to maximize his chances at trial.

“Unfortunately the strategy is working the way it’s supposed to work,” McCarthy said on Fox News Channel on Friday.

In the National Review, he said the prosecution should never have happened.

“This was not remotely a case of recklessness in which Penny could be said to have willfully disregarded an obvious risk of death,” he wrote. “There is evidence that Penny placed Neely in a position that made it easier to breathe, waited for police to arrive and cooperated fully with them, and did not even know that Neely was dead when he voluntarily spoke to police and stated, what happened was that he wasn’t trying to hurt Neely, just subduing him until the police arrived.

DANIEL PENNY WILL BE AWARDED THE CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL BY THE GOP LAW

Penny, a Marine veteran, is awaiting a jury’s verdict on involuntary manslaughter charges in the 2023 death of Jordan Neely on a New York subway. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

Other commentators, including Jeremy Carl, a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, reacted angrily to the latest developments in court.

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“Kyle Rittenhouse was clearly not guilty, but the Daniel Penny case makes the Kyle Rittenhouse case look like a model of blind justice,” Carl wrote. “He is undoubtedly a hero in every sense of the word and the charges against him are an absolute disgrace.”

“I don’t think the left fully understands how much they’re radicalizing people when a Marine who saved a bunch of people on the subway from a violent person with a mental illness screaming, ‘Someone’s going to die today,’ is demonized,” former “The View” co-host Meghan McCain argued. “Daniel Penny did nothing wrong, you crazy people.”

Fox News’ Michael Ruiz and CB Cotton contributed to this report.

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