The panelists acquitted Penny of criminally negligent homicide — which could have put him behind bars for up to four years — in Neely’s chokehold death aboard a crowded uptown F train in May 2023.

Manslaughter, the top charge against Penny, was tossed on Friday after jurors twice said they couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict.

Follow The Post’s live blog for the latest updates on Daniel Penny’s not guilty verdict

Jurors sided with Penny’s defense attorneys, who had argued that the Marine veteran was justified in rushing to protect his fellow subway straphangers when he subdued the erratic homeless man. The lawyers had also questioned whether there was sufficient evidence that the chokehold caused Neely’s death.

“Who do you want on the next train ride with you?” one of his lawyers, Steven Raiser, in his closing statement in Manhattan Supreme Court.

“The guy with the earbuds minding his own business who you know would be there for you if something happened? Or perhaps you just hope that someone like Jordan Neely does not enter that train when you are all alone, all alone in a crowd of others frozen with fear?”

The acquittal comes after jurors heard from more than 40 witnesses, including passengers who described Neely’s terrifying outburst on the train before Penny approached him from behind and took him down at the Broadway-Lafayette station.

One straphanger testified she was “scared s–tless” hearing Neely ranting about being “willing to die and go to jail.” She later thanked Penny for stepping in to restrain Neely, who also raged that “someone is going to die today.”

Another woman on the train told jurors that she feared for her life after hearing Neely’s “satanic” rant.

And a mother who was taking her 5-year-old son to a doctor’s appointment testified that she was so scared of a “belligerent and unhinged” Neely that she barricaded her son behind his stroller.

No witness testified that Neely put his hands on anyone, or lunged at a specific person, before Penny put him in the chokehold. Evidence during the month-long trial also revealed that Neely was not carrying a weapon at the time — with cops finding only a muffin in his pocket.

The polarizing case kicked off fierce conversation about a mentally ill man who was failed by the city’s broken system — a sentiment even Mayor Eric Adams expressed, saying Penny did “what we should have done as a city” by protecting others that day.

Prosecutors argued that Penny went “too far” — and that his actions turned criminal when he kept Neely in the hold after nearly all of the frightened passengers had fled the train.

The polarizing case kicked off fierce conversation about a mentally ill man who was failed by the city’s broken system — a sentiment even Mayor Eric Adams expressed, saying Penny did “what we should have done as a city” by protecting others that day.

“What’s so tragic about this case is that even though the defendant started out trying to do the right thing, as the chokehold progressed, the defendant knew that Jordan Neely was in great distress and dying, and he needlessly continued,” prosecutor Dafna Yoran said in her closing statement.

Jurors watched frame-by-frame footage from a bystander’s six-minute video of Penny holding Neely — including for 51 seconds after Neely’s body appears to go limp. Penny kept holding Neely despite witnesses pleading with him to “let him go!,” the video shows.

Dr. Cynthia Harris, who ruled that Neely’s death was a homicide caused by Penny’s chokehold, pointed out for jurors the exact moment when Neely passed out on the subway car’s floor — with Penny still wrapping his arm around Neely’s neck.

The city medical examiner, who made her ruling before Neely’s toxicology report came back, testified that she was so confident after watching video of the encounter that she’d stand by her decision even if it later turned out that Neely had enough drugs in his body “to put down an elephant.”

Jurors asked for a readback of that specific portion of Harris’ testimony during deliberations.

Trial evidence revealed that Neely had the synthetic marijuana drug K2 in his system at the time of the confrontation. Jurors also heard that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, telling doctors in 2021 that he’d heard the “devil’s voice.”

Penny’s mother, sister, friends and fellow Marines took the stand to vouch for his character.