Jon Voight Praises ‘Hero’ Daniel Penny, Blasts ‘Sick’ Luigi Mangione

Jon Voight is calling on Americans to realize the difference between right and wrong … taking a minute to praise Daniel Penny — who was found not guilty in the fatal choking of Jordan Neely — and slam Luigi Mangione, the suspected killer in Brian Thompson‘s murder.

We caught up with the actor following the big updates in Penny and Mangione’s respective New York cases … and Angelina Jolie‘s dad made his opinions crystal clear on the highly discussed true-crime stories.

As Voight put it … Penny should be hailed as a hero, and applauded the Marine veteran for having “the guts” to do what he did.

He continued … “Holy smokes, that’s a big deal. I don’t know if I would be as brave as him … The guy did an extraordinary thing. There are heroes among us.”

As TMZ previously reported, Penny was acquitted after standing trial in the death of a 30-year-old homeless man named Jordan Neely, who had reportedly been threatening passengers on a NYC subway before DP put him in a fatal chokehold.

While Voight was all for building up Penny in the aftermath of his not-guilty verdict, he was not interested in giving Mangione a similar time of day. He blasted the Ivy League grad, who has been called a hero by some after being charged with murder in the UnitedHealthcare CEO killing … as he called the shooting “a sick thing.”

Voight even took a moment to defend the differences in the two cases … noting it’s “very important that people have some kind of sense of right and wrong.”

He added … “People have got to go back to be being good citizens themselves and have a high standard for their behavior. And then, they’ll be able to make a judgment on what’s going on in front of them.”