The recently-acquitted Daniel Penny is trading the courtroom for the stadium suite. He is attending this afternoon’s annual Army-Navy Game — sharing a suite with President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance.
Vance confirmed on Thursday that Penny would be his guest, referring to him as “a good guy” and praising “his courage.”
Out Free
On Monday, Penny was acquitted of a charge of criminally negligent homicide in the killing of homeless man Jordan Neely. Just days earlier, a judge had dismissed the manslaughter charge in the case after the jury declared itself deadlocked.
The case stemmed from a deadly confrontation on the New York City Subway that reignited the nation’s divisions on crime, race, and social justice.
On May 1, 2023, Penny placed Neely in a chokehold for six minutes, prosecutors say, killing him.
Neely had been behaving erratically on an uptown F train in Manhattan, where witnesses said the 26-year-old made threats of self-harm and threatened to harm others.
Penny, a former Marine, intervened and restrained Neely using a chokehold — a technique he had learned during his military service. The New York City medical examiner concluded that the chokehold caused Neely’s death.
Neely had a history of severe mental health struggles stemming from the brutal murder of his mother, as well as a long record of arrests and involuntary hospitalizations. At the time of his death, toxicology reports indicated he had drugs in his system.
A Culture Warrior?
Penny has been hailed by some as a hero who came to the aid of the vulnerable. His critics argue he went too far — using excessive force to take another man’s life in an act of reckless vigilantism.
Much like Kyle Rittenhouse, who became a polarizing figure after his acquittal on homicide charges after killing two men at a Black Lives Matter protest, Penny has emerged as a conservative icon. While he granted an interview to Fox News this week, it remains unclear whether he seeks to maintain a public presence.
Earlier this month, retired football star Boomer Esiason — who hails from the same Long Island, NY neighborhood as Penny and called for his exoneration, expressed hope that Penny “writes a book about” his experience.
Esiason added, “I hope they make a movie about it. I hope he [Penny] makes tens of millions of dollars because of it.”
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