Daniel Penny, the young veteran whose actions around the death of a disturbed homeless man put him in the crosshairs of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, was found not guilty on criminally negligent homicide charges in a unanimous verdict by the jury on Monday.
The decision comes one business day after the 12-member jury failed for hours to reach a decision on the first count of manslaughter. After the foreman told Judge Wiley that the body was at an impasse, Wiley instructed jurors to continue deliberating. They did so for the remainder of Friday afternoon but emerged at the end of the day without a verdict, leading Wiley to instruct jurors to move on to the second count, criminally negligent homicide.
On Monday, sporadic applause burst through in the courtroom as not-guilty pleas were read off.
