JUROR'S THREAT CLAIM FORCES MISTRIAL IN TOBACCO CASE.(CAPITAL REGION)

Byline: TOM HAYS Associated Press

NEW YORK -- A federal judge declared a mistrial Thursday in a high-stakes tobacco trial after getting a note from a juror warning deliberations were so strained that another juror had made a violent threat.

The last of three handwritten notes sent out to U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein on the fifth day of deliberations said that a ``juror has made (a) threat against other juror to kill'' if they had to be ``here much longer.''

Weinstein told lawyers he had to take the note seriously. ``I have an obligation to jurors to protect them,'' he said.

Juror Maggie Altidor -- one of two holdouts in a 10-2 …