After three days of intense deliberations, a 12-person jury has acquitted Daniel Penny, a former United States Marine, of criminally negligent homicide over the killing of a homeless black man, Jordan Neely, at a New York subway station last year.

Citing witnesses, the New York Times reported that Mr Neely, who had a history of mental illness, was riding around the New York subway car on May 1, 2023, when he started insulting passengers and making threats to them, which prompted Mr Penny to step in.

Mr Penny decided to put Mr Neely in a chokehold as the two men struggled on the floor of the subway car for minutes, which ultimately resulted in the death of the deceased.

The incident caused outrage among the black community and Mr Penny was subsequently charged in relation to the incident.

Following the start of deliberations late last week, the jurors of seven women and five men sent two notes to Judge Maxwell Wiley on Friday, stating they had deadlock in reaching a unanimous decision whether Mr Penny was guilty of manslaughter — a higher charge — in the death of Mr Neely.

However, after the jurors sent a second note in the afternoon regarding their inability to come to an agreement on the manslaughter charge, Judge Wiley granted the prosecution’s request to strike out the charge before dismissing the jurors for the weekend to prepare for deliberations on the second charge.

On Monday, the jurors appeared to have been convinced of the defence’s argument and ultimately decided to acquit Mr Penny of any criminal wrongdoing regarding his actions that led to the death of Mr Neely.

Andre Zachary, Neely’s father, said following the verdict: “What are we gonna do, people? What’s gonna happen to us now? I had enough of this. The system is rigged. Come on, people. Let’s do something about this.”