Marine veteran Daniel Penny was acquitted Monday in the chokehold death of homeless subway rider Jordan Neely, sparking outrage among liberals on social media.

A Manhattan jury found Penny not guilty of involuntary manslaughter, a charge that carried a maximum sentence of four years. The more serious charge of second-degree manslaughter, which carried a maximum sentence of 15 years, was dismissed last week by Judge Maxwell Wiley after jurors twice told the court they were deadlocked on the matter.

Penny, a 26-year-old Navy veteran and architecture student, was charged with manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter in Neely’s death in a chokehold in a Manhattan subway car in May 2023. Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia, had an active arrest warrant at the time, and he had stormed onto the train shouting death threats while high on a type of synthetic marijuana called K2. Penny grabbed Neely from behind in a chokehold during the incident and Neely later died.

The high-profile case sparked a debate about public safety, mental illness and homelessness in the New York City subway system. Penny’s defense argued that he was protecting others on the subway who were threatened by Neely’s outburst, and prosecutors argued that Penny acted with too much force and his actions led to Neely’s death.

Involuntary manslaughter charges against Daniel Penny dismissed as jury adjourns for the weekend

Liberal commentators responded to the jury’s verdict on Monday by suggesting that racism and bias against the homeless and poor influenced the jury’s decision.

“Imagine if Jordan Neely had been white and Daniel Penny had been black. Imagine what some of the people defending Penny today would say. Imagine,” wrote former MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan.

“Everything that preceded and followed the lynching of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway by Daniel Penny could and should have been prevented,” wrote Tiffany Cabán, Council Member for NYC Council District 22 in Queens, New York, on Bluesky.

“Jordan Neely deserves better than the violence that comes from being denied access to stable housing and health care and dehumanized in return. “Jordan Neely deserves better than the systems that allow and justify white supremacist extrajudicial violence against Black people,” she added.

“Jordan Neely was 30 years old and struggling with mental illness, drug addiction and homelessness. He performed in New York subways. Danial Perry (sic) strangled Mr. Neely. A judge – not a jury – decided that Penny was guilty of nothing.” “I don’t understand it,” actress and activist Mia Farrow also wrote. In her response, she noted that Penny was white and Neely was black.

DANIEL PENNY TRIAL: KEY EVIDENCE THAT JURIES REVIEW DURING TRIALS

“An acknowledgment that wasn’t really needed that our society doesn’t view homeless people as people,” Jack Mirkinson, senior editor of The Nation, wrote on Bluesky.

“I’m sickened by the jubilation going on on Twitter right now because Daniel Penny got away with murdering Jordan Neely, a homeless black man with mental health issues. It’s disgusting,” said Brooklyn Dad Defiant, a popular account with over 385,000 followers. posted on Bluesky.

“That Daniel Penny and Daniel Perry and Kyle Rittenhouse and George Zimmerman are walking free in the worst country in the world is something that demands a reckoning,” wrote activist Joe Katz.

“Daniel Penny is a racist, classist, disabled murderer. He should face ignominy forever regardless of what a court does or doesn’t do to him,” posted Tim Wise, senior fellow at the African American Policy Forum, after Judge on X dismissed the more serious charge against Penny. The post was viewed over 4 million times over the weekend.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE media and culture coverage

Several other liberals on Bluesky made a connection between the recent assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and Penny’s acquittal.

“I guess we can call off the manhunt for the CEO assassin, vigilante killings are legal in NYC,” posted another Bluesky account with nearly 47,000 followers.

Black Lives Matter activists in New York previously threatened to protest if Penny was acquitted.

After Penny’s acquittal, New York BLM co-founder Hawk Newsome told reporters, “We need some black vigilantes.”

“People want to jump up and choke us and kill us because we’re loud? “How about we do the same when they try to oppress us?” he added.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Fox News’ Michael Ruiz, CB Cotton and Grace Taggart contributed to this report.