Manhattan jury acquits Daniel Penny in fatal chokehold case

Question: Could you summarize " A Manhattan jury found Daniel Penny not guilty of criminally negligent homicide Monday in the death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway last year. Penny also previously faced a more serious second-degree manslaughter charge, but Judge Maxwell Wiley dismissed it Friday at the request of prosecutors after jurors twice told the court they could not come to a verdict on the count. Penny, a 26-year-old former Marine, would have faced up to four years in prison for a criminally negligent homicide conviction and up to 15 years for a manslaughter conviction. There was applause in the courtroom as the not-guilty verdict was read aloud. Penny locked eyes with members of the jury that acquitted him, nodding in thanks. A smile was visible on his face. Neely’s father, who was present in the courtroom for the verdict, was escorted out of the courtroom after an audible outburst with expletives. 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." into two sentences.