Daniel Penny is staying “staying positive and optimistic” and spending the weekend with his family as he waits for a Manhattan jury to resume deliberations in his high-profile subway chokehold case, his lawyer told The Post.
Jurors are expected back in court Monday to consider whether to convict Penny on a criminally negligent homicide charge, after they deadlocked on a top charge of manslaughter.
“He’s been spending as much of his free time with his mothers and sisters,” Penny’s attorney Thomas Kenniff told The Post Saturday. “They’ve been his rock throughout this very difficult time.”
Criminally negligent homicide carries a sentence of probation up to four years behind bars.
“While Danny is relieved by the dismissal of the manslaughter count, he still faces the second homicide charge in the indictment, and a significant state prison sentence,” Kenniff said.
“He remains confident that when the jury returns on Monday, they will agree he acted reasonably in the face of the unprecedented terror Jordan Neely manifested aboard the F train. There can be no compromise when it comes to an innocent man’s freedom.”
Penny’s lawyers have said the Long Island native and aspiring architect was justified in protecting passengers from a man who witnesses said yelled, “Someone’s going to die today!” and who said he was ready to go to jail after boarding the uptown F train.
Deliberations began on Tuesday afternoon and culminated in the dramatic turn of events in court Friday, when prosecutors ultimately tossed the manslaughter charge.
The developments garnered praise for Penny from none other than champion golfer Phil Mickelson, who shared a post from political commentator Collin Rugg on X that called Penny a “model citizen…that every mayor of every city should want more of,” a “hero” and a “breed of young men who are becoming less and less common.”
Mickelson agreed with Rugg’s words.
“Agree. Thank you Daniel for serving your country and for protecting the many passengers whose lives were threatened by this violent and deranged individual,” Mickelson wrote.
