Daniel Penny To Attend Army-Navy Game As JD Vance’s Guest

Vice President-elect JD Vance invited subway hero Daniel Penny to attend this weekend’s Army-Navy football game – and Penny accepted.

Penny, who was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide on Monday, will attend the game as Vance’s special guest and watch alongside Vance and President-elect Donald Trump from Trump’s private suite.

“Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone,” Vance wrote on X. “I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage.”

Daniel’s a good guy, and New York’s mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone.

I’m grateful he accepted my invitation and hope he’s able to have fun and appreciate how much his fellow citizens admire his courage. https://t.co/b4bY0G0EM3

— JD Vance (@JDVance) December 13, 2024

The invitation was first reported by Reese Gorman, a journalist at the non-profit news outlet NOTUS.

New: VP-Elect JD Vance has invited Daniel Penny to be his personal guest at the Army-Navy game this weekend, per source familiar.

They will be joining President Trump in his suite at the game.

— Reese Gorman (@reesejgorman) December 13, 2024

Penny, a 26-year-old Marine veteran, was charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide after he put homeless man Jordan Neely in a chokehold last year. Neely had been threatening to kill passengers on the New York City subway when Penny placed him in a chokehold to restrain him until police arrived.

Neely still had a pulse when police arrived but soon died, and prosecutors said Penny was responsible. At trial, the New York medical examiner testified that Penny’s chokehold caused Neely’s death, even though high amounts of drugs were found in Neely’s system. A forensic pathologist who testified for the defense, however, said that Neely died due to the drugs, his sickle cell trait, and the struggle between him and other passengers. An expert called by the defense also testified that Neely had been hospitalized more than a dozen times for psychotic episodes and claimed to hear voices.

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For its final witness, the defense called Brian Kemef, who works for the court clerk’s office. Kemef testified that Neely had an active warrant for his arrest relating to an alleged assault in 2021. Neely also had a history of violence, including other assaults on the subway, Fox News reported. Neely had been arrested more than 40 times.

Following the trial, which involved the prosecution repeatedly referring to Penny as “the white man,” jurors told the judge that they were deadlocked over the manslaughter charge, The Daily Wire reported at the time. Judge Maxwell Wiley initially told the jury to return to deliberations and find a unanimous decision, but jurors again said they couldn’t. At that point, the judge and Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran discussed the possibility of dropping the manslaughter charge and allowing the jury to deliberate on the lesser charge in an effort to find a guilty verdict.

When the jury returned after the weekend, it took less than an hour to return a not guilty verdict for the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.