Daniel Penny’s manslaughter charge has been dismissed after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision after four days of deliberations.
The New York jury sent a note on Friday notifying the judge that it was unable to reach a unanimous decision on the second-degree manslaughter charge. This is the first of two charges against him, the second being criminally negligent homicide. The jurors were instructed that they had to reach a decision on the first charge before moving on to the second.
The defense sought an immediate declaration of a mistrial, while the prosecution wanted the jurors to go back and deliberate more. Judge Maxwell Wiley sided with the prosecution.
The jurors returned after three more hours and were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. The defense again argued for a mistrial while the prosecution argued that the manslaughter charge be dismissed so…
