The Appellate Division, First Department, split 4 to 1 Tuesday in affirming a manslaughter conviction over defense objections that the trial judge's deadlock charge had a coercive effect on two holdout jurors.

The Bronx jury in People v. Morgan, 1762/08, deliberated for more than eight hours over two days in the murder trial of Patrick Morgan before saying it was deadlocked, according to briefs.

Acting Justice Nicholas Iacovetta (See Profile) then gave a standard Allen charge, which included the cautionary instruction that in seeking a unanimous verdict, no juror should “surrender their individual judgment or surrender an honest view of the evidence simply because he or she wants the trial to end or is outvoted.”