Opinion
16738 4016/11
01-21-2016
The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Michael JAMES, Defendant–Appellant.
Richard M. Greenberg, Office of the Appellate Defender, New York (Alexandra H. Keeling of counsel), and Jones Day, New York (Briana R. Hulet of counsel), for appellant. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Anjelica Gregory of counsel), for respondent.
Richard M. Greenberg, Office of the Appellate Defender, New York (Alexandra H. Keeling of counsel), and Jones Day, New York (Briana R. Hulet of counsel), for appellant.
Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Anjelica Gregory of counsel), for respondent.
Opinion
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Daniel P. FitzGerald, J.), rendered April 13, 2012, convicting defendant, after a jury trial, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third and fourth degrees, and sentencing him, as a second felony drug offender, to an aggregate term of eight years, unanimously modified, as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice, to the extent of reducing the prison term for the conviction for third-degree possession to six years, resulting in a new aggregate term of six years, and otherwise affirmed.
We find that the Allen charge, read as a whole, was balanced and not coercive (see People v. Pagan, 45 N.Y.2d 725, 727, 408 N.Y.S.2d 473, 380 N.E.2d 299 1978 ). The court encouraged the jurors to reach a verdict if possible, while reminding them not to give up their conscientiously held positions.
SWEENY, J.P., RENWICK, MANZANET–DANIELS, GISCHE, JJ., concur.