TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A judge's jury instructions about a new state law and a split verdict will be issues in appeals by two Florida A&M University fraternity brothers convicted of felony hazing, a defense lawyer says.

Aspiring fraternity member Marcus Jones, 20, of Decatur, Ga., had accused all five of participating in initiation rituals that left him hospitalized for two days after he had been beaten on the buttocks with wooden canes.

A jury late Friday convicted two defendants but deadlocked on the other three in the first legal test of a hazing law passed last year.

"I don't want to cast aspersions on this jury's verdict because they worked very hard this week, but it does strike me as being very inconsistent - extremely inconsistent," said defense lawyer Chuck Hobbs.

Assistant State Attorney Frank Allman said it was too hard to tell why the jury convicted in two cases but not the others.

Besides the split verdict, the appeals will focus on a provision in the hazing law passed last year that makes a third-degree felony if such activity results in "serious bodily harm" and Circuit Judge Kathleen Dekker's instructions to the jury on how to apply that provision, Hobbs said.

Jones testified he still felt pain from the beating if he has to sit for long periods. Jones said he also was slapped. That resulted in a punctured ear drum that has since healed.

Former Kappa Alpha Psi chapter president Michael Morton, 23, of Fort Lauderdale, and Jason Harris, 25, of Jacksonville, are facing penalties ranging from probation to five years in prison after being convicted. They were immediately jailed, but their lawyers said they would file motions Monday seeking to free them pending appeal.

Dekker declared a mistrial for Brian Bowman, 23, of Oakland, Calif.; Cory Gray, 23, of Montgomery, Ala.; and Marcus Hughes, 21, of Fort Lauderdale. She also had declared a mistrial in October when another jury deadlocked in all five cases. Allman said a decision on whether to retry the three remaining defendants a third time will be made later.

Harris was accused of facilitating the beatings while the other four defendants allegedly struck Jones with the canes.

One difference between the trials is that Dekker told the first jury only that serious bodily injury, not defined in the law, was neither slight nor moderate. She declined to elaborate when jurors asked for more guidance.

Dekker gave the second jury additional instructions, saying the term means an injury that is "dangerous, grave, grievous or great as distinguished from slight" and "has important or dangerous possible consequences."

She also said such an injury may, but does not necessarily, include "serious permanent impairment of the function of a bodily member or organ."

Dekker, though, added that the determination of what constitutes a serious bodily injury was solely up to the jury, which heard conflicting testimony on the issue from medical experts.

"The judge legislated a statute from the bench," Hobbs said. "We believe that is patently wrong."

Allman said it was hard to tell whether the new language made any difference.

"If the instruction last time or the issue last time was the serious bodily injury, then perhaps the new instruction, which was somewhat more detailed, helped the jury resolve that question," the prosecutor said.

Harris' lawyer, Richard Keith Alan II, and Hobbs, who represents the other defendants, had argued from the beginning of the first trial that the law was unconstitutionally vague due to its lack of a definition, but Dekker disagreed.

Roosevelt Randolph, a lawyer representing Jones and his parents, said they have not yet decided whether to sue anyone but that the family hoped other states would copy Florida's law.

"This case should send a clear message to all of the fraternities, sororities and other groups around the state and nation that this type of conduct will not be tolerated," Randolph said.