This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before

publication in the New York Reports.

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No. 149 

The People &c.,

 Appellant,

 v.

Roni Smith,

 Respondent.

-----------------------

No. 150 

The People &c.,

 Appellant,

 v.

Keith Fagan, 

 Respondent.

Case No. 149: 

Dana Poole, for appellant.

David J. Klem, for respondent. 

Case No. 150:

Justin J. Braun, for appellant.

Barbara Zolot, for respondent.

PIGOTT, J.:

At the time of its enactment in 1998, Penal Law § 70.45

(1) (as added by L 1998, ch 1 § 15), provided that "[e]ach

determinate sentence also includes, as a part thereof, an

additional period of postrelease supervision" (PRS). A

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substantial number of trial courts mistakenly interpreted the

provision to mean that PRS arose as a matter of law and did not

need to be pronounced at sentencing.1 Thereafter, in People v

Catu (4 NY3d 242 [2005]), we held that PRS "is a direct

consequence of a criminal conviction" such that a court accepting

a guilty plea from a defendant must ensure that the defendant is

aware of the PRS component of his sentence in order for the

defendant "to knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently choose

among alternative courses of action" (id. at 244-245). We

explained that "[a]lthough a court is not required to engage in

any particular litany when allocuting the defendant 'due process

requires that the record must be clear that the plea represents a

voluntary and intelligent choice among the alternative courses of

action open to the defendant'" (id. at 245, quoting People v

Ford, 86 NY2d 397, 403 [1995]). Therefore, a defendant who is

not apprised of the PRS component is entitled to reversal of the

conviction and automatic vacatur of the plea, and the defendant

is not required to demonstrate that he would not have pleaded

guilty had he been aware of the PRS component (Catu, 4 NY3d at

244-245). 

On these appeals, neither defendant Smith nor defendant

1 Notably, it was not until 2008 that the Legislature

amended Penal Law § 70.45 (1) to require that "[w]hen a court

imposes a determinate sentence it shall in each case state not

only the term of imprisonment, but also an additional period of

[PRS] as determined pursuant to this article" (L 2008, ch 141, §

3). 

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Fagan was apprised by the court of the PRS component relative to

the sentence imposed on their guilty pleas entered in January

2002 and May 2000, respectively. They brought postconviction

motions to challenge their Catu-infected pleas and convictions

that were utilized later to enhance sentences for subsequent

crimes, essentially seeking retroactive application of Catu to

disqualify their predicate offenses. In each case, defendant was

satisfied with the plea and does not now claim innocence. 

Rather, because a subsequent crime has predicate felony

implications, defendants challenged the use of their earlier

convictions as "unconstitutionally obtained" on the ground that

they were not apprised of the PRS component of their sentence. 

Although each defendant's challenge to the use of the Catuinfected conviction originated under the guise of an ineffective

assistance of counsel claim, the primary issue that we must

decide is whether, pursuant to either federal or state

retroactivity principles, Catu applies retroactively in enhanced

sentence proceedings. We hold that it does not, and, therefore,

reverse the orders of the Appellate Division in each appeal. 

I. 

People v Roni Smith

In November 2001, defendant Roni Smith pleaded guilty

to the violent felony of robbery in the first degree (Penal Law §

70.02 [1]; Penal Law § 160.15 [4]) in satisfaction of all counts

in the indictment. The trial court failed to advise defendant

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that his sentence also included a mandatory term of PRS.2 In

January 2002, he was sentenced to a determinate term of seven

years' imprisonment. According to defendant, he filed a timely

notice of appeal,3 but it appears that such appeal was never

perfected. 

In April 2007, one year before his seven-year term of

imprisonment expired, defendant was conditionally released and

the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS)

administratively imposed a sentence of five years' PRS pursuant

to Penal Law § 70.45 (1). While defendant was serving his

administratively-imposed PRS term, we held that PRS sentences

must be "pronounced" by the court pursuant to CPL 380.20 and

380.40 and may not be administratively imposed (Matter of Garner

v New York State Dept. of Corr. Servs., 10 NY3d 358 [2008]; see

People v Sparber, 10 NY3d 457 [2008]). 

On October 14, 2008, the sentencing court held a

resentencing proceeding pursuant to Correction Law § 601-d.4 At

that point, defendant had served 18 months of PRS. The court

2 Although the sentencing minutes are not in the record, the

parties agree that there is no indication that defendant was

apprised of PRS at sentencing. Notably, defendant's commitment

sheet did not contain any reference to PRS. 

3 Defendant's notice of appeal is not contained in the

record. 

4 This provision was enacted in response to our decisions

in Garner and Sparber, and facilitated a review by sentencing

courts of all cases between September 1, 1998 and June 30, 2008

where the PRS term was not specified in the commitment order. 

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stated that it was unsure if it had previously advised defendant

of the PRS term because it did not have the minutes. Defendant

stated that he would accept a minimum PRS term -- 2 1/2 years --

and that if the People agreed, defendant "would waive waiting for

the actual minutes to arrive and waive any claims he had with

respect to the plea without the court re-imposing the sentence

again with the actual term of [PRS] as part of the sentence, nunc

pro tunc." The court then sentenced defendant to seven years'

imprisonment with the minimum 2 1/2 year term of PRS, nunc pro

tunc to January 2002. So, as of that date, defendant, for the

second time, pleaded guilty to robbery in the first degree, was

advised of PRS and served his PRS sentence, which expired on

October 23, 2009.

In December 2010, he was indicted on two counts of

criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree (Penal Law §

265.03 [1] [b]; [3]) for an incident that occurred on November

17, 2010. He pleaded guilty to the first count of the indictment

in satisfaction of both counts. Prior to allocution, the People

filed a statement of predicate violent felony conviction (Penal

Law § 70.04; CPL 400.15) that utilized defendant's January 2002

first-degree robbery conviction as a predicate offense. At the

plea proceeding, defendant stated that he was the same person

mentioned in the statement and that he did not wish to challenge

the constitutionality of his prior conviction. The court

adjudicated defendant a second violent felony offender. At the

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June 6, 2012 sentencing proceeding, defendant was sentenced to a

determinate seven-year term of imprisonment with five years'

PRS.5 

In June 2014, defendant made a motion to set aside his

sentence pursuant to CPL 440.20 (1) on the ground that defense

counsel at his 2012 sentencing was ineffective for not

challenging the 2002 predicate conviction, which, according to

defendant, was obtained in violation of Catu. Defendant argued

that his predicate conviction was "unlawfully obtained" under CPL

400.15 (7) (b)6 because defense counsel failed to investigate the

predicate conviction and lacked a strategic basis for not doing

so. He sought vacatur of his 2012 sentence, disqualification of

his 2002 robbery conviction as a predicate offense, and

resentencing as a first violent felony offender. 

Defendant supported the motion with an affirmation of

defense counsel who represented defendant relative to the 2012

conviction. Counsel explained that he failed to investigate the

proceedings that led to the 2002 conviction, and he did not ask

5 Defendant filed a timely notice of appeal, which was

eventually withdrawn by stipulation of the parties. The sole

issue raised was whether defendant was required to register

pursuant to New York City's Gun Offender Registration Act.

6 This provision states, as relevant here, that a prior

conviction "which was obtained in violation of the rights of the

defendant under the applicable provisions of the constitution of

the United States must not be counted in determining whether the

defendant has been subjected to a predicate violent felony

conviction." 

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defendant if the court had apprised defendant of PRS. He was

unaware that the predicate conviction had been unconstitutionally

obtained at the time of defendant's arraignment on the predicate

felony, and maintained that, had he known about the Catu error,

he would have challenged the predicate conviction as

"unconstitutionally obtained" and defendant would not have been

adjudicated a second violent felony offender. 

The People opposed the motion, claiming that a Catu

error does not rise to the level of a federal constitutional

violation and that Catu did not apply retroactively to

convictions that had become final prior to the Catu decision. 

Supreme Court, relying on People v Fagan (116 AD3d 451

[1st Dept 2014]), granted defendant's motion, holding that he was

deprived of the effective assistance of counsel due to counsel's

failure to challenge the predicate conviction. As relevant here,

Supreme Court determined that Catu applied retroactively. The

court resentenced defendant as a first felony offender to seven

years' imprisonment with five years' PRS. 

The Appellate Division modified the judgment by

reducing defendant's sentence to a term of six years'

imprisonment with five years' PRS, but otherwise affirmed (132

AD3d 511, 511 [1st Dept 2015]). Pointing to CPL 400.15 (7) (b),

the court held that "[b]ecause a conviction obtained in violation

of Catu implicates rights under the federal Constitution as well

as the state constitution (citations omitted), the [motion] court

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properly granted defendant's CPL 440.20 motion and vacated his

sentence as a second violent felony offender on the ground that

his 2002 conviction could not be counted as a predicate felony

under CPL 400.15 (7) (b)" (id. at 511-512). Moreover, the court

held that although the 2002 conviction preceded the Catu

decision, "the rule of law announced in Catu applies

retroactively to Catu convictions" (id. [citations omitted]). 

A Judge of this Court granted the People leave to

appeal. 

II.

People v Keith Fagan

On April 18, 2000, defendant Keith Fagan pleaded guilty

to attempted robbery in the first degree.7 The following month,

he was sentenced as a second felony offender to a determinate

term of seven years' imprisonment. The court did not apprise

defendant at sentencing that he was subject to a mandatory term

of PRS. 

Defendant was released from prison in March 2006 and

DOCCS administratively imposed a five-year PRS sentence. On

January 28, 2009, defendant appeared for a Correction Law § 601-d

hearing. At the hearing, the court acknowledged that the

administratively-imposed PRS was illegal, and, to remedy the

illegality, resentenced defendant to a seven-year determinate

7 The minutes to the plea proceeding have been lost, but

the parties agree that defendant had not been apprised of PRS. 

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sentence with five years' PRS nunc pro tunc to the original

sentencing date of May 23, 2000. 

In February 2009, defendant was charged in a 12-count

indictment with committing various offenses, including robbery

and grand larceny. While defendant was awaiting trial on that

indictment, Supreme Court vacated defendant's PRS term that had

been imposed at the January 28, 2009 resentencing in light of

People v Williams (14 NY3d 198 [2010], cert denied 562 US 947

[2010]), in which we held that "after release from prison, [there

is] a legitimate expectation in the finality of a sentence [that]

arises and the Double Jeopardy Clause prevents reformation to

attach a PRS component to the original completed sentence"

(Williams, 14 NY3d at 217). 

In June 2010, defendant proceeded to trial on the

February 2009 indictment. In the middle of trial, however, he

pleaded guilty to the lesser included offense of attempted

robbery in the first degree in satisfaction of all 12 counts in

the indictment. He was arraigned as a persistent violent felony

offender based on two prior felonies -- a 1980 conviction for

criminal sexual act in the first degree and the May 2000

attempted robbery conviction. Defendant admitted that he was the

person named in the persistent violent felony information filed

by the People, and did not challenge any of the allegations

contained therein. On July 6, 2010, he was sentenced as a

persistent violent felony offender to 18 years to life

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imprisonment. 

In January 2013, defendant moved for an order setting

aside his sentence pursuant to CPL 440.20 (1) on the ground that

his adjudication as a persistent violent felony offender was

illegally imposed and invalid because his May 2000 attempted

robbery conviction was "unconstitutionally obtained" under Catu

and could not serve to enhance his sentence. He also claimed

that his counsel was ineffective for not challenging the People's

use of the May 2000 conviction as a predicate offense. In an

affirmation submitted in support of the motion, defense counsel

who was present at the July 2010 sentencing acknowledged that he

did not challenge the May 2000 conviction as unconstitutionally

obtained and did not ask defendant whether the court had apprised

him of the PRS component prior to his pleading guilty, and stated

that, had he been aware that defendant's May 2000 conviction had

been obtained without defendant having been apprised of the PRS

component, he would have challenged the prior conviction. 

The People countered that the Williams vacatur and

defendant's 2010 resentencing that excised the PRS component

rectified the Catu error and gave defendant what he had bargained

for in 2000 when he pleaded guilty, such that the May 2000

conviction was not "unlawfully obtained." They argued that

defendant's counsel at the 2010 plea proceeding could not have

been ineffective for failing to raise a frivolous claim. 

Defendant responded by arguing that although the

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Williams vacatur effectively removed one year from the five-year

PRS term (four of which he had served), that action did not cure

the Catu error. 

Supreme Court denied defendant's motion in its

entirety. The Appellate Division reversed and granted

defendant's motion, holding that defense counsel was ineffective

for not challenging the constitutionality of the May 2000

conviction at the sentencing proceeding (116 AD3d 451, 451 [1st

Dept 2014]). Relying on defense counsel's affirmation, the court

stated that "this was not a case where an attorney may have

reasonably believed that it would have been futile to raise a

Catu issue regarding the constitutionality, for predicate felony

purposes, of defendant's 2000 conviction, or that the law was

unclear on this issue" (id. at 452). As such, according to the

court, defendant was "entitled to have his persistent felony

offender status litigated with proper assistance of counsel, at a

new adjudication and sentencing" (id.).

On remand, Supreme Court, utilizing only the 1980

predicate conviction, sentenced defendant as a second violent

felony offender to a 15-year determinate term with five years'

PRS. The People filed a notice of appeal.

The People also moved pursuant to CPL 440.40 for an

order to set aside defendant's sentence and adjudicate defendant

a persistent violent felony offender. Supreme Court denied the

motion. The People filed a timely notice of appeal. The

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People's appeals from the judgment of resentence and the denial

of the People's CPL 440.40 motion were consolidated. 

The Appellate Division heard the consolidated appeals

and unanimously affirmed, holding, as relevant here, that a Catu

violation implicates both the state and federal constitutions,

and that although the Catu error occurred in 2000 -- well before

the Catu decision in 2005 -- the Catu decision applied

retroactively (134 AD3d 411, 412 [1st Dept 2015]). 

A Judge of this Court granted the People leave to

appeal. 

III.

CPL 400.15 (7) (b) and Federal Retroactivity

In order to establish that a defendant is a second

violent felony offender under CPL 400.15 (7) (a), the People must

prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was convicted

of the predicate violent felony offense in question. Once that

burden is met, the burden shifts to the defendant to establish

that the prior conviction was "unconstitutionally obtained" (CPL

400.15 [7] [b]). CPL 400.15 (7) (b) provides that "[a] previous

conviction in this or any other jurisdiction which was obtained

in violation of the rights of the defendant under the applicable

provisions of the constitution of the United States must not be

counted in determining whether the defendant has been subjected

to a predicate violent felony conviction" (emphasis supplied).

Defendants contend that their Catu-infected convictions

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that pre-dated our Catu decision were unconstitutionally obtained

under CPL 400.15 (7) (b) and therefore cannot be utilized as

predicate convictions to enhance their sentences. Because these

appeals involve postconviction attacks on defendants' respective

prior convictions,8 we begin our analysis with People v

Catalanotte (72 NY2d 641 [1988], cert denied 493 US 81 [1989]). 

That case addressed whether the defendant's sentence as a second

felony offender could be predicated on a prior conviction that

"satisfied constitutional standards when obtained and ha[d]

survived postconviction collateral attack, but was obtained by

means which, if the indictment were tried [at present], would

violate [the] defendant's rights [to a public trial] under the

Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution" (id. at 643). 

In Catalanotte, the defendant unsuccessfully claimed on

direct appeal that he had been deprived of his right to a public

trial when the trial judge summarily excluded spectators from the

courtroom during the testimony of an undercover officer (see

id.). Years after the defendant's appeal had become exhausted,

8 We recognize that defendant Smith's direct appeal from

the 2002 conviction is not technically "final" because he has not

perfected that appeal, and there is no indication from the record

that the People moved to dismiss that appeal. Defendant Smith

has not provided any excuse as to why he has not pursued his

direct appeal. As it stands, the direct appeal has remained

stagnant for more than a decade. Because of the procedural

posture of this particular appeal, i.e., defendant Smith made a

postconviction motion attacking his predicate conviction based on

a Catu error, we will consider defendant's appeal as one

involving a collateral attack. 

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this Court held in another case that it was reversible error for

a court to summarily close the courtroom simply because a witness

was an undercover police officer (see id. at 643-644, citing

People v Jones, 47 NY2d 409, 414-415 [1979], cert denied 444 US

946 [1979]). 

In 1986, the defendant pleaded guilty to attempted

robbery in the second degree, and the court adjudicated the

defendant a second felony offender utilizing the 1971 conviction

as a predicate over the defendant's objection that the 1971

conviction was "unconstitutionally obtained" under People v Jones

(Catalanotte, 72 NY2d at 644). The defendant argued on appeal to

this Court for the application of the Jones rule to prevent the

enhanced punishment for the 1986 conviction, claiming that the

prior conviction had been "unconstitutionally obtained" (id.). 

We began our analysis by setting forth the pertinent rule,

namely, that 

"for purposes of determining whether a prior

conviction 'was unconstitutionally obtained'

[under CPL 400.21 (7) (b)]9 -- and thus may

not be counted for predicate felony purposes

-- the proper inquiry is to determine whether

the conviction was obtained in violation of

the defendant's rights as defined by the law

at the time of the conviction or by present

law which is properly applied to it under

recognized principles of retroactivity" (id.

at 643). 

We explained that the clear import of the phrases "was

9 This provision is substantially similar in language to

CPL 400.15 (7) (b). 

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obtained" and "was unconstitutionally obtained" under CPL 400.21

(7) (b) necessarily indicated that the validity of the conviction

must "be determined as of the time it was entered," and that an

unconstitutional conviction is one that is "obtained in violation

of the defendant's constitutional rights, i.e., his rights as

defined by the law existing at the time the conviction was

obtained or by subsequent law applicable to the judgment under

principles of retroactivity" (id. at 644-645). Significantly, we

noted that a "conviction does not become unconstitutional merely

because the law has changed subsequent to the defendant's direct

appeal of that conviction" (id. at 645). As relevant here, we

held in Catalanotte that

"[s]ince the predicate felony statute

operates upon the prior conviction rather

than the prior practice, accepted principles

of retroactivity must be applied to determine

whether a conviction 'was unconstitutionally

obtained' and thus may not be counted when

the People seek to impose an enhanced

sentence. Under those rules, a defendant is

entitled to the benefit of any change in the

law if the change occurs before his

conviction becomes final (citation omitted)

or, if the right at stake is such that the

law has engrafted an exception to the

traditional rule to permit collateral attack

on judgments of conviction after they have

become final" (id. at 645 [citations omitted]

[emphasis supplied]). 

Applying that rule, we held that the 1971 conviction

met neither criteria, noting that the court's closure of the

courtroom in 1971 had complied, at that time, with the existing

legal requirements for a public trial (see id. at 645), and,

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while this Court had eventually declared a similar procedure

unconstitutional, it did not make the Jones rule retroactive, nor

did it require a finding that the predicate conviction had been

"unconstitutionally obtained" (id. at 645-646). We explained

that "[t]he logic of such interpretation is manifest when one

considers that the proper meaning to be given to broadly stated

constitutional commands, such as due process of law and right to

a public trial, changes constantly" (id. at 646 [emphasis

supplied]). 

Applying the first Catalanotte rule here, i.e., that a

prior conviction may not be counted for predicate felony purposes

if "the conviction was obtained in violation of the defendant's

rights as defined by the law at the time of the conviction"

(Catalanotte, 72 NY2d at 643), it is evident that the law at the

time of defendants' respective predicate convictions in 2002 and

2000 did not require automatic vacatur for a court's failure to

pronounce PRS. Although at the time of defendants' predicate

convictions the law required a defendant be informed of the

direct consequences of a guilty plea, i.e., those that have "a

definite, immediate and largely automatic effect on [a]

defendant's punishment" (Ford, 86 NY2d at 403), the law also

required that defects in plea allocutions could not result in a

reversal absent a showing of prejudice (see People v Nixon, 21

NY2d 338, 355 [1967], cert denied 393 US 1067 [1969] ["It should

never be enough to undo a plea because of some omission in

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inquiry at the time of the plea without a showing of

prejudice"]). Indeed, in the PRS cases that preceded our Catu

decision, the Appellate Departments required a showing of

prejudice (see e.g. People v Mason, 2 AD2d 272, 272 [1st Dept

2003], lv denied 1 NY3d 630 [2004] [direct appeal]; People v

Ballinger, 12 AD3d 686, 688 [2d Dept 2004] [CPL 440.10 motion];

People v Bonilla, 6 AD3d 1059, 1060 [4th Dept 2004] [CPL 440.10

motion] [relying on Nixon]; see also People v Melio, 304 AD2d

247, 252 [2d Dept 2003] [direct appeal].10 

And, in People v Catu (2 AD3d 306 [1st Dept 2003], revd

4 NY3d 242), the Appellate Division specifically held that the

defendant, who made his motion pursuant to CPL 440.10, was not

entitled to plea vacatur because he failed to show that had he

known of the PRS component he would not have pleaded guilty (see

id. at 306). In support of that contention, the Appellate

Division relied on United States v Timmreck (441 US 780 [1979]). 

In that case, the United States Supreme Court held that a

defendant was not entitled to vacatur of his sentence because the

District Court had failed to apprise him at the time of his plea

that his prison sentence also included a three-year mandatory

10 In People v Goss (286 AD2d 180 [3d Dept 2001]), the Third

Department held that a defendant was entitled to withdraw his

plea prior to sentencing because he had not been advised of the

PRS component (see id. at 184). Notably, however, the Goss court

addressed (but rejected) the People's argument that County

Court's failure to advise him of the PRS component was harmless

(see id.). 

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minimum special parole term, noting that the defendant did not

argue that he was unaware of the mandatory term or that he would

not have pleaded guilty had the judge apprised him of the

mandatory term (see id. at 783-784).11 

In light of the foregoing, neither defendant Smith's

nor Fagan's conviction was obtained in violation of the law as it

existed at the time of their respective convictions. Both state

and federal law required that a defendant demonstrate that he

would not have pleaded guilty had he known about a mandatory term

of his sentence. It was not until our 2005 decision in Catu that

a defendant was entitled to automatic vacatur. 

Nor does application of the second Catalanotte rule --

that a prior conviction may not be used as a predicate conviction

where the conviction was obtained in violation of "present law

which is properly applied to it under recognized principles of

retroactivity" (Catalanotte, 72 NY2d at 643) -- lend support to

defendants' argument that they should be permitted to mount a

postconviction challenge to a final predicate conviction. CPL

400.15 (7) (b) expressly refers to challenges of previous

convictions "obtained in violation of the rights of the defendant

under the applicable provisions of the constitution of the United

11 Notably, the federal standard requires a defendant to

demonstrate that the court's error during the plea proceeding

affected the defendant's decision to accept the plea (see United

States v Westcott, 159 F3d 107, 112-113 [2d Cir 1998], cert

denied 525 US 1084 [1999]; Caputo v Henderson, 541 F2d 979, 984

[2d Cir 1976]). 

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States," but, assuming for the purposes of this appeal that CPL

400.15 (7) (b) applies to violations of the New York

Constitution, neither state nor federal retroactivity principles

would permit these defendants to mount a postconviction attack on

their predicate convictions.12 

Because defendants Smith and Fagan claim that their

prior convictions were "unconstitutionally obtained" under the

Unites States Constitution, we will first address the application

of federal retroactivity rules to the instant appeals. 

In Teague v Lane (489 US 288 [1989]), the United States

Supreme Court, in addressing the issue of retroactivity for cases

on collateral review, recognized that, "[u]nless they fall within

an exception to the general rule, new constitutional rules of

criminal procedure will not be applicable to those cases which

have become final before the new rules are announced" (id. at

310; see Whorton v Bockting, 549 US 406, 419 [2007] [under

Teague, an old rule will apply on direct and collateral review,

whereas a new rule applies to only cases that are still on direct

review]). That holding raises the pertinent question as to what

constitutes a "new rule" for purposes of retroactivity analysis. 

The Teague court explained that "a case announces a new rule when

12 In light of this assumption, we need not address the

People's argument that our holding in People v Pignataro (22 NY3d

381 [2013]) established that a Catu error constitutes only a

violation of the state constitution, thereby taking it out of the

realm of CPL 400.15 (7) (b). 

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- 20 - Nos. 149 & 150

it breaks new ground or imposes a new obligation on the States or

the Federal Government (citations omitted). To put it

differently, a case announces a new rule if the result was not

dictated by precedent existing at the time the defendant's

conviction became final" (Teague, 489 US at 301 [citations

omitted] [emphasis in original]).13 A result is not deemed

"dictated by precedent," however, "unless it would have been

apparent to all reasonable jurists" (Lambrix v Singletary, 520 US

518, 527-528 [1997]).

As with most rules, there are exceptions. As relevant

here, a new rule will be applied retroactively if it is a

"watershed rule[] of criminal procedure" that implicates "the

fundamental fairness and accuracy of the criminal proceeding"

(see Saffle v Parks, 494 US 484, 495 [1990], citing Teague, 489

US at 311).14 This exception is limited "to those new procedures

without which the likelihood of an accurate conviction is

seriously diminished" (Teague, 489 US at 313). Absent an

applicable exception, "[a]ll other new rules of criminal

procedure must be applied in future trials and in cases pending

13 In contrast, an "old rule" is one that applies a wellestablished constitutional principle to a new circumstance, and,

as such, is always retroactive (Yates v Aiken, 484 US 211, 216

[1988]; People v Eastman, 85 NY2d 265, 275 [1995]). 

14 The other exception, not applicable here, is when the

new rule "place[s] certain kinds of primary individual conduct

beyond the power of the States to proscribe . . ." (People v

Baret, 23 NY3d 777, 791 [2014], quoting Danforth v Minnesota, 552

US 264, 266 [2008]).

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- 21 - Nos. 149 & 150

on direct review, but may not provide the basis for a federal

collateral attack on a state-court conviction" (Danforth v

Minnesota, 552 US 264, 266 [2008] [summarizing the Teague rule]). 

Defendants contend that our opinion in Catu merely

applied the well-established constitutional principle that a

defendant must be apprised of the direct consequences of his or

her plea in order for the plea to meet the "knowing, intelligent

and voluntary" requirement (Ford, 86 NY2d at 403). To that end,

defendants are partially correct, since prior to the Catu

decision, Penal Law § 70.45 (1) required that "[e]ach determinate

sentence . . . include[], as a part thereof, an additional period

of [PRS]" (Penal Law § 70.45 [1] [emphasis supplied]). All four

Appellate Departments were in agreement that PRS was a direct

consequence of a guilty plea (see Ballinger, 12 AD3d at 687-688;

Bonilla, 6 AD3d at 1060; Mason, 2 AD3d at 272-273; Goss, 286 AD2d

at 184). However, Catu did more than simply apply a long-held

constitutional principle to a new circumstance -- it created a

new rule calling for automatic vacatur of the plea without

requiring the defendant to demonstrate prejudice, which plainly

differed from prior law (see Nixon, 21 NY2d at 355 ["It should

never be enough to undo a plea because of some omission in

inquiry at the time of the plea without a showing of

prejudice"]). Significantly, the Appellate Division's Catu

decision focused on the prejudice component (2 AD3d at 306), and

did not address the issue whether PRS was a direct consequence of

- 21 -
- 22 - Nos. 149 & 150

a plea, which, by that point, was well established among the four

Appellate Division Departments. Therefore, our determination in

Catu announced a new rule that a defendant who is not apprised of

PRS need not demonstrate prejudice in order to obtain a reversal

and plea vacatur, and given the state of the law pre-Catu, our

determination in Catu was most certainly not dictated by

precedent. 

Nor does Catu fall within an applicable recognized

exception that would permit a new rule to be retroactively

applied on collateral attack because it did not constitute a

"watershed rule[] of criminal procedure," i.e., it is not a "'new

procedure[] of fundamental fairness without which the likelihood

of an accurate conviction is seriously diminished'" (People v

Baret, 23 NY3d 777, 784 [2014], cert denied __ US __, 135 S Ct

961 [2015], quoting Teague, 489 US at 311, 313]). The United

States Supreme Court has stated that this particular exception is

an "extremely narrow" one (Schriro v Summerlin, 542 US 348, 352

[2004]), and has repeatedly analogized such a rule to the right

to counsel established by Gideon v Wainwright (372 US 335 [1963])

(see Whorton, 549 US at 419 [rejecting retroactive application of

Crawford v United States (541 US 36 [2004])]; Teague, 489 US at

311-312; see also Schriro, 542 US at 355-356 [rejecting

retroactive application of Ring v Arizona (536 US 584 [2002])]). 

Gideon -- which held that counsel must be appointed for any

indigent defendant charged with a felony -- is the lodestar case

- 22 -
- 23 - Nos. 149 & 150

for this exception because "[w]hen a defendant who wishes to be

represented by counsel is denied representation . . ., the risk

of an unreliable verdict is intolerably high" (Whorton, 549 US at

419 [citations omitted]). 

In order to apply a new "watershed rule" retroactively,

the rule must meet two requirements, namely, it "must be

necessary to prevent an impermissibly large risk of an inaccurate

conviction . . . [and it] must alter our understanding of the

bedrock procedural elements essential to the fairness of a

proceeding" (Whorton, 549 US at 418 [internal citations and

quotations omitted]). The latter requirement mandates that the

new rule "constitute a previously unrecognized bedrock procedural

element that is essential to the fairness of a proceeding," and

the United States Supreme Court has "looked to the example of

Gideon" in analyzing the requirement (id. at 421). 

Our Catu "automatic vacatur" rule did not constitute

such a "watershed rule" comparable to the determination in

Gideon. Catu was not necessary to prevent an impermissibly large

risk of an inaccurate conviction, and it is doubtful that the

failure of the courts to apprise defendants Smith and Fagan of

the PRS component resulted in them pleading guilty to crimes that

they did not commit. Indeed, when presented with their prior

convictions, defendants Smith and Fagan acknowledged that they

were the individuals mentioned in the predicate felony statements

filed by the People, and that they did not wish to challenge any

- 23 -
- 24 - Nos. 149 & 150

of the allegations contained within their respective statements.

Similarly, Catu's automatic vacatur rule did not "alter

our understanding of the bedrock procedural elements essential to

the fairness of a proceeding" (Whorton, 549 US at 420, quoting

Sawyer v Smith, 497 US 227, 242 [1990] [emphasis in original]). 

To be sure, although Catu is a significant decision that created

a rule that called for automatic vacatur of convictions where a

defendant is not apprised of the PRS component of the sentence,

the rule itself is not on par with Gideon. Indeed, as noted

above, the federal rules do not call for automatic vacatur, but

require a defendant to show that an error during the plea

proceeding affected the defendant's decision to plead guilty (see

Westcott, 159 F3d at 112-113; Caputo, 541 F2d at 984). 

IV.

State Retroactivity

Assuming for the sake of this appeal only that CPL

400.15 (7) (b) allows a defendant to challenge a predicate

conviction obtained as a violation of his state constitutional

right, state retroactivity principles militate against a

retroactive application of Catu. In People v Pepper (53 NY2d 213

[1981], cert denied 454 US 967 [1981]), this Court adopted a

three-part test to assist in determining whether a new precedent

should be afforded a retroactive application (id. at 220). We

explained that courts should weigh and examine (1) "the purpose

to be served by the new standards"; (2) "the extent of the

- 24 -
- 25 - Nos. 149 & 150

reliance by law enforcement authorities on the old standards";

and (3) "the effect on the administration of justice of a

retroactive application of the new standards" (id.). The second

and third factors are given substantial weight only "'when the

answer to the retroactivity question is not to be found in the

purpose of the new rule itself" (id. [citation omitted]). "Thus,

where otherwise there could be a complete miscarriage of justice,

current constitutional standards that go to the heart of a

reliable determination of guilt or innocence have been

substituted for those in effect at the time of trial" (id. at

221). As a general rule, the Pepper rules "disfavor

retroactivity" (Baret, 23 NY3d at 799). 

In Pepper, we were asked to determine the retroactivity

of our holding in People v Samuels (49 NY2d 218 [1980]), where

"we held that once an accusatory instrument has been filed a

defendant cannot waive his constitutional right to counsel save

in the presence of counsel" (Pepper, 53 NY2d at 217, citing

Samuels, 49 NY2d 218). Incidentally, we held in Pepper that

Samuels retroactively applied to defendants whose direct appeals

were not final at the time it was decided; however, we refused to

apply it to those defendants who had exhausted their direct

appeals, noting "only complete retroactivity could make Samuels

applicable [in the latter case]. And that, impermissibly, would

mean that every defendant to whose case it was relevant, no

matter how remote in time and merit, would become its

- 25 -
- 26 - Nos. 149 & 150

beneficiary" (id. at 222). 

Although a court's failure to advise a pleading

defendant of the PRS component constitutes a due process

violation, it cannot be said that the purpose of the Catu rule --

automatic vacatur -- has any bearing on the defendant's guilt or

innocence. It is highly unlikely that defendants who pleaded

guilty to criminal offenses that required determinate sentences

but did not have PRS pronounced pleaded guilty to crimes that

they did not commit. Thus, while PRS is certainly an important

component of a sentence, a court's failure to inform a defendant

of that component is not likely to result in the conviction of an

innocent person. 

Nor do the second and third factors weigh in favor of

retroactivity. Prior to these particular appeals, prosecutors,

defense counsel and courts had relied extensively on the

legitimacy of pre-Catu predicate felony convictions for

enhancement purposes where PRS had not been pronounced. 

Moreover, retroactive application of Catu would do little to

advance the administration of justice as it would render useless

prior predicate convictions as a result of a sentencing error

that bore no relationship to the defendant's guilt or innocence. 

The Legislature, in an attempt to remedy the Catu errors

committed between September 1, 1998 and June 30, 2008, enacted

Penal Law § 70.85, which granted the court, with the consent of

the district attorney, the authority to re-impose the original

- 26 -
- 27 - Nos. 149 & 150

determinate sentence without any term of PRS (see Penal Law §

70.85; L 2008, ch 141, § 2). This essentially created an

exception to Penal Law § 70.45's requirement that a PRS component

be added to all determinate sentences, such that a sentence

pronounced without PRS under CPL 70.85 nonetheless constitutes a

legal sentence. 

Finally, in addition to the statutory avenues of relief

that have been enacted to assist a defendant in rectifying Catu

errors, our case law permits a defendant to raise an unpreserved 

Catu error on direct appeal (see People v Louree, 8 NY3d 541,

545-546, n [2007] [also holding that a defendant may not raise a

Catu objection by way of a CPL article 440 proceeding]). 

Moreover, we have held that because there is little distinction

between a Catu claim and a challenge to the adequacy of a plea

allocution, "[i]n the absence of justification for a defendant's

failure to pursue [that] issue on direct appeal . . ., [a Catu]

claim may not be raised in a CPL 440.10 motion" (People v

Stewart, 16 NY3d 839, 841 [2011]). Based on the foregoing, the

application of the Pepper test does not favor state

retroactivity. 

V.

Conclusion

In People v Smith, the Appellate Division erred in

holding that Catu applies retroactively to pre-Catu convictions. 

Accordingly, the Appellate Division order should be reversed, the

- 27 -
- 28 - Nos. 149 & 150

resentence vacated and the original sentence reinstated.

In People v Fagan, the Appellate Division likewise

erred in determining that defendant Fagan was entitled to

challenge his pre-Catu predicate conviction on the ground that

Catu applied retroactively. Accordingly, the Appellate Division

order should be reversed, the resentence vacated and the original

sentence reinstated. 

- 28 -
People v Smith

People v Fagan

Nos. 149 & 150

DiFIORE, Chief Judge (concurring):

For the reasons that follow, I concur in the result. 

In my view, defendants' original convictions were

constitutionally obtained under this Court's jurisprudence and

permissibly used as predicate convictions to enhance defendants'

sentences. 

In 1998, with the adoption of Jenna's Law, the

legislature "eliminat[ed] parole for all violent felony offenders

. . . [and] enacted a scheme of determinate sentencing to be

followed by periods of mandatory postrelease supervision" (PRS)

(see People v Catu, 4 NY3d 242, 244 [2005]; Penal Law § 70.45

[1]). The statutory mandate of PRS, which continues beyond a

defendant's release from his or her maximum determinate term of

incarceration, had "'a definite, immediate and largely automatic

effect on defendant's punishment'" (Catu, 4 NY3d at 244, quoting

People v Ford, 86 NY2d 397, 403 [1995]). The failure of many

trial courts to properly impose that PRS term, in connection with

both trial and plea convictions, has resulted in a chaotic

landscape and led to a litany of cases before this Court,

beginning with People v Catu (4 NY3d 242). 

- 1 -
- 2 - Nos. 149 & 150

In Catu, we addressed a trial court's failure to advise

the defendant of his PRS term in connection with his bargainedfor sentence on a guilty plea where the defendant's status as a

predicate felony offender mandated that his sentence include a

five-year PRS period. The defendant in Catu sought the vacatur

of his plea on direct appeal and moved for the same relief

through a CPL 440.10 motion, seeking to return to his pre-plea

position before the trial court. We held that PRS "is a direct

consequence of a criminal conviction" such that the failure to

inform a defendant of his or her PRS term prior to taking a

guilty plea violated the long-standing due process requirement

that pleas be entered "knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently"

(id. at 244, 245). We further held that the remedy for that

error is to permit a defendant to vacate his or her plea and

return to the trial court (see id.).1 As we later explicated,

"vacatur of the plea is the remedy for a Catu error since it

returns a defendant to his or her status before the

1 The majority's retroactivity analysis is predicated on the

basis that the Catu remedy of automatic vacatur of the plea did

not exist before our 2005 decision (see maj opn at 18). However,

at the time both defendant Smith and defendant Fagan pleaded

guilty, the law allowed defendants to challenge the voluntariness

of their pleas if the courts imposed sentences in excess of that

for which defendants bargained and were promised on the record

(see e.g. People v Selikoff, 35 NY2d 227 [1974]; People v

Esposito, 32 NY2d 921 [1973]). Thus, where a defendant pleaded

guilty in exchange for a promised determinate sentence and a

court imposed PRS without his or her knowledge, he or she could

allege, even at the pre-Catu stage, that the guilty plea was

involuntary and unconstitutionally obtained (see People v Harris,

61 NY2d 9 [1983]; CPL 400.15 [7] [b]). 

- 2 -
- 3 - Nos. 149 & 150

constitutional infirmity occurred," i.e., the pre-plea status

where defendant faces the risk of an even greater determinate

sentence and the certain imposition of PRS if convicted (People v

Hill, 9 NY3d 189, 191 [2007]). 

Prior to 2008, because Penal Law § 70.45 (1) mandated

that determinate sentences include a period of PRS, sentences

without the proper imposition of PRS were illegal. Thus, the

remedy in cases where the trial court failed to advise defendant

at the time of the guilty plea of PRS in connection with the

bargained-for sentence was a resentencing. Since the conviction

was on a guilty plea, the vacatur of that plea was also required. 

The court could not merely grant specific performance of the

promised, and more lenient, sentence.2 However, in 2008 the

legislature enacted Penal Law § 70.85, "[t]ransitional exception

to determinate sentencing laws," creating an alternative remedy

for the trial court's failure to advise a defendant of his or her

PRS term at the time of his or her guilty plea.3 The statute

authorizes the court to "re-impose the originally imposed

determinate sentence of imprisonment without any term of [PRS],"

2 Notably, we rejected an argument that this error could be

cured by resentencing the defendant such that the prison term and

PRS term together are within the range of the sentence promised

to defendant in connection with the plea (see Hill, 9 NY3d at

192; People v Louree, 8 NY3d 541, 545 [2007]; People v Van

Deusen, 7 NY3d 744, 746 [2006]; but see People v Collier, 22 NY3d

429 [2013]).

3 This remedy is available for determinate sentences imposed

between September 1, 1998 and June 30, 2008. 

- 3 -
- 4 - Nos. 149 & 150

and permits that sentence to "be deemed a lawful sentence," so

long as the district attorney consents (Penal Law § 70.85). 

Accordingly, with section 70.85, the legislature carved out an

exception to Penal Law § 70.45 thereby "allowing a determinate

sentence without a term of PRS to stand as a legal sentence"

(People v Pignataro, 22 NY3d 381, 384 [2013]). The statute

relegates PRS to a possible consequence in plea cases in the

relevant time period, rather than a definite, immediate, and

automatic part of a defendant's sentence. We later sanctioned

this transitional remedy as "a constitutionally permissible

legislative remedy for the defectiveness of the plea" (id. at

387). Defendants are effectively given more lenient sentences

while their plea convictions are afforded a much needed finality. 

In a related line of cases, we addressed a trial

court's error in failing to pronounce PRS at sentencing following

either a trial verdict or a knowing, voluntary and intelligent

guilty plea where a PRS term was included on the commitment

sheet, which reflects the court's commitment of the defendant to

the custody of the Department of Correctional Services (DOCS)4

(see People v Sparber, 10 NY3d 457 [2008]; CPL 380.20).5 We held

4 While this department is now referred to as the

Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS), it

was known as DOCS at the time relevant to these appeals and,

therefore, will be referred to as DOCS throughout.

5 In Sparber, the defendant was not informed of his PRS term

prior to pleading guilty, and the court failed to pronounce PRS

at sentencing, but defendant's commitment sheet reflected a five-

- 4 -
- 5 - Nos. 149 & 150

that the "sole remedy" for that procedural error "is to vacate

the sentence and remit for a resentencing hearing so that the

trial judge can make the required pronouncement" (Sparber, 10

NY3d at 471). As we later clarified in a matter involving a

trial conviction, that resentencing proceeding "is not a plenary

proceeding," but is "limited to remedying this specific

procedural error," i.e., the court's failure to pronounce the

sentence of PRS (People v Lingle, 16 NY3d 621, 635 [2011]). 

Then there were the cases where the sentence of PRS was

never imposed as the trial court failed to pronounce the PRS term

at sentence and also failed to include any such sentence on the

commitment order to DOCS. These defendants without a PRS

sentence would be released from prison prior to the expiration of

their determinate sentences without any supervision, thus serving

less punishment than originally imposed by the trial court and

less punishment than statutorily required. In those cases, in an

attempt to ensure the defendant was serving a legal sentence

under section 70.45, DOCS administratively imposed PRS (see

Matter of Garner v New York State Dept. of Correctional Servs.,

10 NY3d 358 [2008]). This extrajudicial attempt to impose PRS at

a postjudgment stage was illegal. Specifically, we held that

PRS, as any sentence, must be pronounced by the court at

year PRS term (see id.). The defendant rejected the remedy of

the vacatur of his plea under Catu, seeking a more lenient

sentence by having his PRS term expunged (see id. at 466). 

- 5 -
- 6 - Nos. 149 & 150

sentencing and, therefore, administrative imposition of the PRS

term by DOCS was prohibited (see id. at 362). However, the

remedy for that error, too, was a resentencing proceeding in the

trial court (see e.g. People v Velez, 19 NY3d 642, 645-646

[2012]). 

In order to facilitate such resentencing proceedings,

where there was no imposition of PRS in a sentence by the trial

court, the legislature passed Correction Law § 601-d. The

statutory procedure allowed for the resentencing of persons "in

DOCS's custody, or under its supervision, [that were] given a

determinate sentence which was required by law to include PRS,

but where DOCS's records do not show that a PRS term was actually

imposed" (id. at 646). Such a defendant is considered a

"designated person" under the statute and the department is

instructed to "make notification of that fact to the court that

sentenced such person, and to the inmate or releasee," at which

point "[t]he court shall promptly seek to obtain sentencing

minutes, plea minutes and any other records and shall . . .

conduct any reconstruction proceedings that may be necessary"

(Correction Law § 601-d [2], [4] [b]).

The postjudgment imposition of PRS proved somewhat

problematic and, in People v Williams (14 NY3d 198 [2010]), we

placed a temporal limitation on a court's ability to impose PRS

in these situations. We held that "after release from prison, a

legitimate expectation in the finality of a sentence arises and

- 6 -
- 7 - Nos. 149 & 150

the Double Jeopardy Clause prevents reformation [of the sentence]

to attach a PRS component to the original completed sentence"

(id. at 217). Put differently, "once a defendant is released

from custody and returns to the community after serving the

period of incarceration that was ordered by the sentencing court,

and the time to appeal the sentence has expired or the appeal has

been finally determined . . . the Double Jeopardy Clause prevents

a court from modifying the sentence to include a period of [PRS]"

(id. at 219-220). The corrective relief by the court for the

double jeopardy violation is the vacatur of the illegal

resentence and the reinstatement of the original sentence (id. at

222). Importantly, while the Double Jeopardy Clause prohibits

untimely imposition of any new punishment, including PRS, the

constitutional error is a function of the resentencing court

acting outside of its authority. It does not affect a

defendant's original conviction (see e.g. People v Jordan, 15

NY3d 727 [2010] [reinstating original sentence where defendant

resentenced to PRS in violation of Double Jeopardy Clause]).

Here, the constitutional infirmity that both defendants

argue rendered their respective original convictions6

"unconstitutionally obtained" within the meaning of CPL 400.15

(7) (b) is the failure of the trial courts to impose PRS as part

of their original judgment or otherwise advise defendants in

6 "Original conviction" refers to defendant Smith's 2002

conviction and defendant Fagan's 2000 conviction.

- 7 -
- 8 - Nos. 149 & 150

their original proceeding that the sentence included a mandatory

period of PRS. Defendants' essential argument is that this is a

Catu error that infected their guilty pleas and requires

disqualification of those convictions as predicate convictions. 

With that in mind, I now turn to the cases before us. In doing

so, I adopt the facts of the majority, but highlight those

relevant to my analysis.

People v Roni Smith

In November 2001, defendant Smith pleaded guilty to

robbery in the first degree, a violent felony (Penal Law § 70.02

[1]; Penal Law § 160.15 [4]). Defendant, when sentenced in

January 2002, was never sentenced to PRS as he was not advised

that his bargained-for sentence would include a mandatory PRS

term, and defendant's commitment sheet reflected no such term. 

Nevertheless, upon his release from prison in April 2007, DOCS

administratively imposed a PRS term. In October 2008, this

illegal imposition of PRS was captured and defendant was

resentenced pursuant to Correction Law § 601-d based on the

omission of a PRS term from his sentence for his 2002 conviction. 

During that resentencing proceeding, the trial court admitted

that it did not have possession of the minutes of defendant's

2001 plea proceeding and, thus, could not be sure if it had

advised defendant of the mandatory PRS term. Pivotally,

defendant agreed to "waive waiting for the actual minutes to

arrive and waive any claims he had with respect to the plea" so

- 8 -
- 9 - Nos. 149 & 150

long as the court "grant[ed] him the minimum post-release period"

of 2 1/2 years (the maximum possibility being 5 years). The

record reflects that the court specifically asked defense counsel

the following: "You're asking me to sentence [defendant] to the

minimum period of post-release supervision and not withdraw

[defendant's] plea. Is that what you're talking about?", to

which defense counsel responded "[defendant] indicated he's

prepared to do that if the prosecutor's office would be willing

to go along with it." The court then sentenced defendant to the

minimum PRS period. 

Based on this exchange, defendant, having chosen not to

seek the remedy of vacatur of the guilty plea and the opportunity

to be restored to a pre-plea status, cannot now claim his

original conviction was unconstitutionally obtained (see

generally People v DeValle, 94 NY2d 870 [2000]). 

Defendant was not actually sentenced to PRS in 2002. 

Nor was he sentenced to a PRS term upon the administrative

imposition of PRS by DOCS, as that action was a nullity (see

Garner, 10 NY3d at 360). To rectify that error, defendant was

brought back to the trial court in 2008 to be resentenced. 

There, before the imposition of sentence, defendant declined to

seek the Catu remedy of vacatur of his plea (and return to

uncertain pre-plea status), asking instead for the minimum 2 1/2-

year PRS period. Consequently, defendant effectively waived any

argument that his plea was not knowingly, voluntarily and

- 9 -
- 10 - Nos. 149 & 150

intelligently entered or that it was otherwise unconstitutionally

obtained.

To the extent defendant could invoke our 2010 decision

in Williams to render the untimely imposition of PRS at

resentencing in 2008 a violation of Double Jeopardy, that illegal

sentence would not affect the legality of the underlying plea

conviction. "The Constitution does not require that sentencing

should be a game in which a wrong move by the judge means

immunity for the prisoner" (United States v DiFrancesco, 449 US

117, 135 [1980] [citation and quotation marks omitted]). Indeed,

after electing to maintain his guilty plea with knowledge of the

imposition of PRS, after the 2008 resentencing defendant was in

the same position as any defendant with a lawfully obtained

conviction and an illegal sentence. The only appropriate

corrective relief is the vacatur of the illegal resentence and

the reinstatement of the original sentence (see Williams, 14 NY3d

at 222). Defendant cannot now retain the benefit of the

bargained-for plea, but eliminate the 2002 conviction for

consideration as a predicate felony conviction based on the

corrected Catu error. 

People v Keith Fagan

In April 2000, defendant Fagan pleaded guilty to

attempted robbery in the first degree. Defendant was not advised

that his sentence would include a mandatory PRS term, nor was

such term pronounced at sentencing or included in the court's

- 10 -
- 11 - Nos. 149 & 150

commitment order. Nevertheless, upon release in March 2006, DOCS

administratively imposed a PRS term. This illegal imposition of

PRS was captured in January 2009 and defendant also was

resentenced in the trial court pursuant to Correction Law § 601-d

based on the omission of a PRS term from his sentence for his

2000 conviction. However, that resentence violated the Double

Jeopardy Clause under this Court's decision in Williams because

defendant had already completed his determinate sentence and

served a portion of his PRS term. In March 2010, the illegal

imposition of PRS was vacated by the trial court on these grounds

and defendant's original sentence was restored. Thus, as of that

time -- prior to the use of the original conviction as a

predicate felony for enhanced sentencing -- defendant's sentence

for his 2000 conviction was the originally imposed determinate

term of seven years, with no PRS, as promised to defendant at the

time of his guilty plea. 

Penal Law § 70.85 specifically provides that, as an

alternative to the remedy of vacatur of the plea, a court can

"re-impose the originally imposed determinate sentence of

imprisonment without any term of [PRS]." Here, defendant

received that lawful non-PRS sentence. Defendant's original

sentence for his 2000 conviction was re-imposed and the

intervening attempts to impose PRS were nullified (under

Williams). Thus, like defendant Smith, defendant Fagan's

original conviction on his guilty plea was not infected by a Catu

- 11 -
- 12 - Nos. 149 & 150

error, as the sentence actually promised at the time of the plea

was the sentence actually imposed. Having received the benefit

of the "constitutionally permissible legislative remedy for the

defectiveness of the plea" in section 70.85 (Pignataro, 22 NY3d

at 387), no constitutional infirmity remained with respect to

defendant's original conviction. The fact that, due to the

court's resentencing error at the postjudgment stage, defendant

Fagan served some portion of his PRS term (some of which is

within the range of the expected determinate sentence imposed)

and may be entitled to some other form of relief does not

undermine the lawfulness of that original conviction (see

DiFrancesco, 449 US at 135 [noting that the wrong move of a

sentencing judge does not invalidate the conviction]). 

 As of March 2010, defendant's 2000 conviction was a

lawful conviction for which he received a legal sentence. In

fact, defendant received the precise sentence for which he

bargained, undermining any argument that his guilty plea was not

knowingly, voluntarily and intelligently entered. Therefore,

nothing barred the use of the 2000 conviction as a predicate

felony conviction in connection with defendant's sentence for his

2010 conviction. 

For those reasons, I would reverse the Appellate

Division order in both matters, vacate defendants' resentences,

and reinstate defendants' original sentences.

- 12 -
The People of the State of New York v Roni Smith

The People of the State of New York v Keith Fagan

Nos. 149 & 150 

RIVERA, J.(dissenting):

This Court has long abided by the cardinal principle

that "a conviction obtained in violation of one's constitutional

rights may not be used to enhance punishment for another offense" 

(People v Harris, 61 NY2d 9, 16 [1983]). That is, until now.

In these appeals, the majority has determined that

defendants' respective convictions may serve as a predicate for

sentencing purposes because the constitutional defect complained

of was first recognized in People v Catu (4 NY3d 242 [2005]), and

has no retroactive application to defendants' cases. This

conclusion is not supported by the case law, which clearly shows

that Catu was based on due process guarantees already well

established in both federal and state jurisprudence. As a

consequence, and unsurprisingly, we previously applied Catu

retroactively. The legislature acted on the same understanding

and passed Penal Law § 70.85 in response to Catu and its progeny

on the assumption that all tainted sentences, going back to 1998,

were subject to the Catu holding. Therefore, because

distinguishing defendant's convictions here belies case law,

legislation, and fairness, I dissent.

In addition to the general constitutional prohibition

- 1 -
- 2 - Nos. 149 & 150

on the use in sentencing of unconstitutionally obtained prior

convictions (People v Harris, 61 NY2d at 16, citing Burgett v

Texas, 389 US 109, 115 [1967]), New York has a statutory ban on

consideration of such convictions as predicate offenses. 

Pursuant to CPL 400.15 (7) (b), "[a] previous conviction in this

or any other jurisdiction which was obtained in violation of the

rights of the defendant under the applicable provisions of the

constitution of the United States must not be counted in

determining whether the defendant has been subjected to a

predicate violent felony conviction."1 An unconstitutional

conviction is one "obtained in violation of the defendant's

constitutional rights, i.e. [a defendant's] rights as defined at

the time the conviction was obtained or by subsequent law

applicable to the judgment under principles of retroactivity"

(People v Catalanotte, 72 NY2d 641, 644-45 [1988]).

Here, the relevant due process rights were known and

clearly defined at the time of the defendants' respective

convictions. In the context of guilty pleas, both the United

States Supreme Court and this Court have long held that a plea

must be knowing and voluntary for the plea to comport with the

due process guaranteed to criminal defendants (Boykin v Alabama,

395 US 238, 242 [1969]; Chaipis v State Liquor Auth., 44 NY2d 57,

1 As I discuss, since defendants' convictions implicated

their federally recognized due process rights, I have no occasion

to address the people's argument that CPL 400.15 (7) (b) does not

apply to state constitutional violations.

- 2 -
- 3 - Nos. 149 & 150

63 [1978]; People v Hill, 9 NY3d 189, 191 [2007], citing NY

Const, Art 1, § 6; People v Ford, 86 NY2d 397, 403 [1995];

McCarthy v United States, 394 US 459, 466 [1969]). As an

additional protection of a defendant's rights, "[a] trial court

has a constitutional duty to ensure that a defendant, before

pleading guilty, has a full understanding of what the plea

connotes and its consequences" (Ford, 86 NY2d at 402-403

[internal cites omitted]). To that end, "the record must be

clear that 'the plea represents a voluntary and intelligent

choice among the alternative courses of action open to the

defendant,'" and the court must advise the defendant of those

direct consequences of the plea "which ha[ve] a definite,

immediate and largely automatic effect on defendant's punishment"

(id. at 403). In Catu, in reliance on these due process

requirements, the Court stated that the mandatory postrelease

supervision (PRS) portion of a sentence is "a direct consequence

of a criminal conviction" (4 NY3d at 244). Accordingly, "the

failure of a court to advise of [PRS] requires reversal of the

conviction" (id. at 245), because "the constitutional defect lies

in the plea itself and not in the resulting sentence" (Hill, 9

NY3d at 191).

As this discussion illustrates, the Court in Catu did

not rely on amorphous or unsettled concepts of due process or

break new legal ground. It simply applied existing doctrine

"defined by the law at the time the conviction was obtained"

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- 4 - Nos. 149 & 150

(Catalanotte, 72 NY2d at 645), to the facts before it (see Ford,

86 NY2d at 403 [explaining the plea is not voluntary when a

defendant is not told of the direct consequences of guilty plea

and defining "direct consequence" as those that are "definite,

immediate and largely automatic" upon entry of the plea]).

The same rules apply here. The courts in defendants'

cases failed to advise them of the PRS portion of their

sentences. As a consequence, these defendants' convictions were

obtained in violation of their recognized due process rights,

rendering their respective pleas constitutionally defective

(People v Catu, 4 NY3d 242, 245 [2005]; maj. at 2). Under Harris

and CPL 400.15, the convictions may not serve as a predicate

offense to enhance their sentences for a future offense (Harris,

61 NY2d at 16; CPL 400.15 [7] [b]). 

This would not be the first time that this Court has

applied Catu retroactively. In Pignataro, defendant pleaded

guilty to attempted assault and was orally sentenced to a

fifteen-year determinate sentence in February 2001, without being

advised of his mandatory PRS (People v Pignataro, 22 NY3d 381,

383 [2013]). Thereafter, defendant did not perfect his direct

appeal, and instead commenced post-conviction proceedings, first

to challenge the constitutionality of his guilty plea and later

to challenge his Penal Law § 70.85 resentencing (id.). The

provision was enacted in 2008, in the wake of Catu and a

subsequent line of cases addressing various sentencing

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- 5 - Nos. 149 & 150

challenges, and "authorizes a trial court to 're-impose,' with

the People's consent, 'the originally imposed determinate

sentence of imprisonment without any term of [PRS]'" (Pignataro,

22 NY3d at 384, quoting Penal Law § 70.85). We would have no

occasion to consider Pignataro's challenge to Penal Law § 70.85 

-- a legislative remedy specifically designed to address Catu

errors -- if the plea was not obtained in violation of the

defendant's constitutional rights, making his sentence unlawful

and subject to the legislative "cure."2

Our determination that Penal Law § 70.85 was "a

constitutionally permissible legislative remedy" for a defective

plea establishes that while the type of relief may change, the

underlying constitutional violation remains the same. Certainly

that was the Legislature's understanding when it passed Penal Law

§ 70.85, creating a "transitional exception to determinate

sentencing laws" applicable only to cases in which a sentence

without PRS was imposed between September 1, 1998, the year the

Legislature made PRS a mandatory component of determinate

sentencing, and the 2008 date when Section 70.85 took effect (L

2 The majority makes too much of the short memorandum order

in People v Stewart (16 NY3d 839 [2011]), suggesting that the

decision supports denying retroactive application of Catu (maj at

27). The summary opinion in Stewart merely recognized the

obvious -- that Catu errors are plain on the face of the record

and thus reviewable on direct appeal. The Court did not

foreclose any other avenue of review, or limit the reach of Catu. 

Indeed, in People v Hill (9 NY3d 189, 190 [2007]), the Court

applied Catu to a defendant's CPL 440.10 post-judgment challenge

to his 2002 conviction. 

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- 6 - Nos. 149 & 150

1998, ch 1 [Jenna's Law]). The Legislature would not have needed

to reach back to 1998 in order to "avoid the need for pleas to be

vacated" (Governor's Approval Mem., Bill Jacket, L 2008, ch 141

at 5–6, 2008 NY Legis Ann at 106), if Catu applied only

prospectively.

The decision applying Catu retroactively is quite

limited and would affect a narrow class of individuals. Those

potentially affected are defendants who completed PRS before

resentencing, and who commit another crime that places them at

risk for sentence enhancement. Put another way, the class

includes only defendants who: 1) were convicted and sentenced

after 1997 but before 2005, and who were not advised of the

mandatory PRS portion of the sentence; 2) were released from

prison before 2008, did not have their convictions cured by Penal

Law § 70.85, and served the mandatory PRS; and 3) committed a new

offense that puts them at risk for sentence enhancement.3

Apart from the other legal reasons I have discussed, it

is inherently unfair to permit sentencing enhancement for this

group of defendants because it would mean "the accused in effect

3 Since the issue before us involves defendants who are

repeat offenders it is worth noting that the State's recividism

rate has been steadily declining since 2001, and hit a record low

in 2013, with only 9% of ex-offenders released from prison in

2010 being incarcerated for a new crime in the years that

followed (Press Release, Dep't of Corr. & Community Supervision,

Return Date for Parolees Committing New Felony Crimes Hits

Historic Lows [Nov. 24, 2014], http://www.doccs.ny.gov/PressRel/

2014/Recidivism_Rates_2010.pdf).

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- 7 - Nos. 149 & 150

suffers anew from the deprivation" of due process which infected

the prior conviction (Burgett, 389 US at 115). Such result

undermines our constitutional principles and the holding of Catu.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

For Each Case: Order reversed, the resentence vacated and the

original sentence reinstated. Opinion by Judge Pigott. Judges

Abdus-Salaam, Stein, Fahey and Garcia concur. Chief Judge

DiFiore concurs in result in a separate concurring opinion. 

Judge Rivera dissents and votes to affirm in an opinion.

Decided November 1, 2016

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