A strange legal move by the Manhattan district attorney’s office last week ultimately led to the acquittal of Daniel Penny on Monday, legal experts told The Post.

An attempt to dismiss the main manslaughter charge against 26-year-old Penny in the May 2023 subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely backfired spectacularly on prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, they said Lawyers.

“To say that the prosecution botched its analysis here for tactical reasons is an understatement,” said former Manhattan District Attorney Mark Bederow, who called the case “a failure of prosecutorial discretion.”

“I don’t believe there has ever been a situation in which a jury of 12 Manhattan subway riders would convict a U.S. Marine who came to the aid of passengers who were being threatened by an unstable man,” Bederow said. now defense attorney, said.

Prosecutors on Friday rejected calls from Penny’s legal team for a mistrial after the jury was hopelessly deadlocked on the involuntary manslaughter charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

Instead, they asked Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley to agree to a motion to dismiss the main charge and allow the jury to continue deliberating on the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter, which carried a maximum sentence of four years in prison

“I will take the risk and grant the people’s request,” the judge said on Friday. “I don’t know whether that makes a difference or not. But I will instruct you to concentrate your considerations on point two.”

The move was sharply rebuked by Penny’s lawyers, who argued it could “force” the jury into a “compromise” verdict.

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Follow The Post’s live blog for the latest updates on Daniel Penny’s no guilty verdict

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But it was Penny who came out on top in the end.

Legal experts say Wiley’s ruling is not unprecedented, but it is rare.

“I’ve never seen it while a jury is deliberating,” said Julie Rendelman, a former Brooklyn prosecutor and current criminal defense attorney, “and after a jury returns with a verdict that she was hung on the top charge.”

Rendelman also said the move could impact future criminal cases because prosecutors might overcharge “even when the evidence arguably wasn’t there,” and then point to the Penny trial and dismiss the charges when they see that their cases fail.

“What we’ve seen here,” Rendelman told The Post, “is that they said, ‘Eh, I guess it didn’t work the way we wanted it to, so let’s act like there’s (the highest charge.’) ) not.’

“I’m sure the prosecution was hoping that dismissal of the top count would result in a conviction of involuntary manslaughter,” Rendelman added after the jury’s acquittal verdict. “That was obviously not the case. Given the eventual acquittal, one has to wonder what exactly the jury decided on when it came to the manslaughter charge.”

Penny, a U.S. Marine Corps veterinarian, claims he acted to protect other straphangers on the train from Neely, who threatened passengers and once shouted, “Someone’s going to die today!”

The encounter, captured on video, shows Penny grabbing Neely from behind and pulling him to the ground in a chokehold until he stopped moving.