More Voters Than Not Approve of Daniel Penny’s Innocent Verdict

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The bulk of voters agree with a jury’s Dec. 9 decision to find Daniel Penny, a white man, innocent of criminally negligent homicide for choking 30-year-old Black homeless man Jordan Neely to death on a New York City subway train.

According to a new Morning Consult survey, 44% of voters approve of the verdict, compared with 29% who disapprove. Another 27% are unsure how they feel about the resolution of the New York case that intensified discussion about race, public safety, the treatment of homeless and mentally ill people and self-defense.

While many Republican officials celebrated the jury’s decision and Penny was even invited to join President-elect Donald Trump in his luxury box at the Army-Navy football game last weekend, Democratic officials were largely mum on the outcome. Our findings suggest the division among Democratic voters, who were only slightly more likely to disapprove than approve of the decision, factored into the rationale behind the relatively muted response from liberal leaders. 

We observed similar division over the decision among Black voters, who were only 5 percentage points more likely to disapprove than approve of the verdict. Hispanic voters and those of other races were also relatively split on the decision, though slightly more than not approved of it.

Fewer voters had opinions about the Penny case than many other high-profile cases we have examined over the past few years.

For example, only 18% of respondents didn’t voice an opinion about Kyle Rittenhouse’s not guilty verdict, which was based on a similar self-defense claim after he fatally shot two people at a protest against police brutality in Kenosha in August 2020. That verdict was more divisive, with 43% in favor and 39% in disapproval.

Though 73% of respondents reported hearing at least something about the Rittenhouse verdict, just 52% of voters said the same about Penny’s acquittal. Part of the reason for this disparity may be the timing. 

News of Penny’s verdict came on the same day of the high-profile arrest of Luigi Mangione, the alleged killer of Brian Thompson, UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive. 

Our surveys found voters were 22 points more likely to hear about Mangione’s arrest than they were of Penny's verdict, including substantial consumption gaps among Democrats and independents, the oldest voter and nonwhite voters. That finding is in line with typical divides we have clocked about other news events throughout the year. 

The bottom line

The Penny trial shared many of the Rittenhouse trial’s themes that animate online discourse, especially among the voices on the left: vigilantism and lawlessness, race in America and treatment of underprivileged people.

But the differing responses to the verdicts, both among elected Democratic officials and its voting base, speak to recent shifts in the politics of public safety.

A lack of trust in Democrats’ handling of crime played a key role in their disappointing election cycle this year. And as the party looks to find its way out of the wilderness, it’s clear that many of its influential voices believe that elevating more populist themes such as the U.S. health care system — even in the unsavory context of Thompson’s murder — will do more to help their cause than a continued emphasis on the more race-based aspects of social justice.