What’s next for Daniel Penny after his acquittal in Jordan Neely’s subway death case

By Eric Levenson, CNN

(CNN) — In the immediate aftermath of his acquittal on criminal charges Monday, the Marine veteran Daniel Penny and his legal team went to a bar in lower Manhattan, a bar employee told CNN by phone.

There, Penny held a drink in one hand while giving a thumbs-up with the other in a posed picture with his attorneys Thomas Kenniff and Steven Raiser, according to a photo from Kenniff.

The post-verdict celebration underscores a basic fact about Penny’s future: The 26-year-old who had been accused of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the subway death of Jordan Neely is now a free man.

So what’s next for Daniel Penny?

His exact plans remain unclear. His attorneys have not responded to a CNN request for comment on his future.

While the criminal case against him is over, Penny still faces a civil lawsuit from Neely’s father alleging he caused Neely’s death.

As for Penny’s life and career, he previously took college classes in engineering and architecture. Further, the trial and debate over his actions on the subway have made him a recognizable public figure and a political talking point – for better or worse.

“Certainly you’ll find people in society who look down upon what he did and his actions, but equally I think you’ll see people who are really favorably inclined to embrace him because of his actions,” CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson said.

Legally, the criminal case against him is over. On Monday, a jury found Penny not guilty of criminally negligent homicide. Penny also previously faced a more serious second-degree manslaughter charge, but Judge Maxwell Wiley dismissed it at the request of prosecutors after jurors twice told the court they could not come to a verdict on the count. Penny could have faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted of manslaughter.

“For over 18 months our client has lived under the weight of a criminal indictment, all the while guilty of nothing more than trying to protect his fellow New Yorkers from a psychotic madman with a history of violence,” Kenniff said in a statement Monday. “Today the Manhattan Jury has spoken, and the misguided prosecution of Daniel Penny will go down as a sad chapter in the history of New York criminal justice.”

Penny spoke out for the first time after his acquittal in an interview with Fox News, during which he doubled down on his defense argument that he was protecting others from danger.

“The guilt I would have felt if someone did get hurt, if he did do what he was threatening to do, I would never be able to live with myself,” Penny told Fox News in a clip of the interview, which is scheduled to air in full Wednesday.

“I’ll take a million court appearances and people calling me names and people hating me just to keep one of those people from getting hurt or killed,” Penny said.

Penny’s history as a student and Marine

The case against Penny stemmed from the death of Neely, a 30-year-old street artist who struggled with homelessness, mental illness and drugs, on a New York City subway car on May 1, 2023.

Neely entered the subway car and began acting erratically, throwing down his jacket and yelling that he was hungry and thirsty and didn’t care whether he died, witnesses said. Penny, a passenger on his way from a college class to the gym, grabbed Neely from behind in a chokehold, forced him to the train floor and restrained him there for several minutes.

When Penny let go, Neely was nonresponsive. He was later declared dead.

Prosecutors argued at his Manhattan trial Penny acted recklessly and negligently by restraining Neely in a chokehold for so long, even after Neely stopped moving. His defense, meanwhile, said he was acting to protect others from a threat and challenged a medical examiner’s finding that Neely died from the chokehold.

After restraining Neely that day, Penny remained on scene when police arrived and later explained his actions to several NYPD officers. In one videotaped interview at the police precinct, he made small talk with a detective about his Marine service and career plans.

Penny served four years in the Marines as a sergeant, from 2017 to 2021, with his last duty assignment at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, according to military records.

“I’m in school. I’m using that GI Bill,” Penny said, referring to the federal program that offers benefits to veterans for higher education.

He said he was studying engineering and architecture at New York City College of Technology. “But we’ll see,” Penny added. “I miss the Marine Corps. I miss the camaraderie.”

Penny’s legal and political future

Penny still faces a civil lawsuit related to Neely’s death. Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, filed a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court last week accusing Penny of assault, battery and causing Neely’s death.

Zachery, who is listed as the administrator of Neely’s estate, accused Penny of having caused the death due to “negligence, carelessness and recklessness.” The suit does not specify the amount of money the family is seeking.

Kenniff, Penny’s defense attorney, did not respond to a request for comment on the suit.

Finally, Penny’s fame and notoriety could lead to both challenges and opportunities in the public sphere.

Penny said he’s not a “confrontational person” and he told Fox News all the media and public attention he’s garnered from the case “is very uncomfortable and I would prefer without it.”

“I don’t want any type of attention or praise, and I still don’t,” Penny said during an excerpt that aired Tuesday of his Fox News interview.

But Penny’s controversial actions in restraining Neely have made him a target of protests outside court throughout the trial. The not-guilty verdict further sparked emotions Monday: Neely’s father was escorted out of the courtroom after the verdict was read following an audible outburst with expletives, and Hawk Newsome, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, yelled “Small world, buddy,” at Penny while being led out.

On the other hand, right-wing political figures have praised his actions and elevated him as a hero. Trump previously commented on the case, telling Fox News, “It’s an awfully tough case, I think.” Vice President-elect JD Vance expressed his support for Penny on Monday, saying on X, “thank God justice was done in this case.”

Rep. Eli Crane, a Republican from Arizona, introduced a resolution in Congress on Monday to grant Penny a Congressional Gold Medal for his “heroism,” he said in a post on X.

“Courage should always prevail over moral cowardice. Thankfully, our justice system got it right yesterday,” Crane said.

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CNN’s Lauren del Valle, Gloria Pazmino, Celina Tebor and Emma Tucker contributed to this report.