On Monday (Dec. 9), a Manhattan jury found Daniel Penny not guilty in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely. The decision came after just five days of deliberations, which included a deadlock on a manslaughter charge that Judge Maxwell Wiley subsequently dismissed.

Penny, now a free man, was initially facing up to four years in prison if convicted. Per NBC News, the anonymous jury — composed of seven women and five men — was responsible for evaluating whether the Long Island native’s actions led to Neely’s death.

The not-guilty verdict was incredibly frustrating for some, especially considering that the last moments of Neely’s life were caught on camera. In May 2023, video showed Penny putting the 30-year-old in a chokehold, which, according to prosecutors, lasted nearly six minutes. “He’s dying,” said one bystander in the clip. “Let him go!”

Neely was later pronounced dead at a Manhattan hospital due to neck compression caused by the chokehold, per the New York City medical examiner. However, a defense-hired forensic pathologist argued that the Michael Jackson impersonator’s unfortunate demise resulted from a mix of his schizophrenia, synthetic marijuana use, sickle cell, and the physical strain of being restrained by Penny.

“I miss my son. My son didn’t have to go through this. I didn’t have to go through this either. It hurts, really, really hurts,” Neely’s father, Andre Zachary, said outside of the courthouse. “What are we going to do, people? What’s going to happen to us now? I’ve had enough of this. The system is rigged.”

Gwen Carr, whose son Eric Garner tragically died after being placed in a fatal chokehold by NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo, also shared a few words. She emphasized, “We can’t allow this to keep going on. We have to fight this system.”