Kyle Rittenhouse congratulated Daniel Penny on social media after the 26-year-old Marine veteran was acquitted Monday of criminal wrongdoing in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway car last year.
"Congratulations on your NOT GUILTY Daniel Penny!!!!" Rittenhouse wrote on X.
In 2021, Rittenhouse was similarly found not guilty of five counts stemming from shooting three men with a semiautomatic rifle in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during riots over the death of George Floyd in police custody.
On Friday, the judge dismissed the most serious charge Penny was facing — manslaughter in the second degree — after jurors said twice during their third day of deliberations that they could not agree on it.
The judge then said the jury could proceed to considering a lesser count of criminally negligent homicide before dismissing jurors for the day.
Penny has said he did not intend to kill Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with a history of mental illness, when he encountered him on an uptown train in May 2023.
"The jury has now spoken. At the Manhattan D.A.'s Office we deeply respect the jury process and we respect their verdict," District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.
Penny did not take the stand in his defense during the trial, which began in October.
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