Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is likely the person "most surprised" by ex-Marine Daniel Penny's "not guilty" verdict, George Washington Law professor Jonathan Turley told Fox News shortly after the jury's decision.
"[The acquittal] was not entirely expected because this is not, obviously, how District Attorney Bragg had planned this," the constitutional scholar said Monday on "The Faulkner Focus."
"The way the case was going was along the sort of design that Bragg had to force a compromise verdict. When the jury deadlocked over the more serious crime, the judge went ahead and allowed them to consider this lesser offense. That is basically what Bragg had hoped, that if he could not get a conviction on the more serious crime, which was unlikely, that they would come back and compromise and convict him on the lesser offense, which still came with a potential penalty of four years.
DANIEL PENNY FOUND NOT GUILTY IN SUBWAY CHOKEHOLD TRIAL
"So I think that the most surprised person in that room may be Alvin Bragg because you have a jury that apparently couldn't agree on the more serious offense, but then they came back, and they said, but we do agree that he's not guilty of the lesser offense, so it's not exactly how this was supposed to play out in his view."
Penny was acquitted of the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide in the chokehold death case days after two failed attempts to reach a unanimous verdict on the more serious second-degree manslaughter charge led Judge Maxwell Wiley to grant the prosecution's motion to dismiss it on Friday.
Many legal experts speculated the move set the stage for a conviction on the lesser charge, amplifying the shock that came with the jury's decision.
Critics who insist charges should have never been brought against Penny speculated Bragg's actions were politically motivated.
DANIEL PENNY RETURNS TO COURT FOR CLOSING ARGUMENTS IN SUBWAY CHOKEHOLD TRIAL
"What's going to be difficult for Alvin Bragg is that he always has the ability to try to bring another case for the more serious offense, but I think that would be very difficult now because you have a jury that just said we don't think he's guilty of the lesser offense and the standard for criminal negligence is vanishingly light in the view of many criminal defense attorneys. It doesn't take a whole lot," Turley continued.
"So if he couldn't convict on that, it would be particularly outrageous for him to try any further prosecution. I don't expect that."
Penny was accused of both charges after Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia, barged onto a New York City subway, shouting death threats while high on a type of synthetic marijuana known as K2.
Neely's father, who was present in the courtroom when the verdict was read, was escorted out of the courthouse after allegedly snapping.
Black Lives Matter activists are now seething, threatening to protest the outcome of the trial.
Fox News' Michael Ruiz and Grace Taggart contributed to this report.
