Court Opinion

ID: 9782818
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 19:20:09.495302+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:35:12.952997
License: Public Domain

Jones, J.
(dissenting). Defendants seek to vacate their predicate felony adjudications on the ground that they are not second felony offenders. Their predicate felony sentences were vacated and they were resentenced under People v Sparber (10 NY3d 457 [2008]). The resentencing in each case took place after the commission of the second felony. Penal Law § 70.06 (1) (b) (ii) makes absolutely clear that “[f]or the purpose of determining whether a prior conviction is a predicate felony conviction . . . [the s]entence upon such prior conviction must have been imposed before commission of the present felony.” Because this criterion is absent from these cases, I respectfully dissent.
This Court fashioned the following remedy for procedurally flawed impositions of PRS terms: “vacate the sentence and remit for a resentencing hearing so that the trial judge can make the required pronouncement” (Sparber, 10 NY3d at 471). Because vacating a sentence has the legal effect of rendering it a nullity, there is no doubt that the Sparber resentences have— for better or worse — affected defendants’ predicate felony status.
Here, the failure to pronounce defendants’ mandatory PRS terms at the predicate sentencing created the circumstance which mandated that defendants be resentenced. Because their resentencing under Sparber took place after the subsequent felony conviction, defendants’ proper sentences were not imposed until after the commission of the present felony; as such, defendants can no longer be classified as second felony offenders (see People v Robles, 251 AD2d 20 [1st Dept 1998]). Accordingly, I would vote to affirm the Appellate Division orders.
Judges Ciparick and Smith concur with Chief Judge Lippman; Judge Pigott concurs in result in a separate opinion in which Judges Graffeo and Read concur; Judge Jones dissents and votes to affirm in another opinion.
In each case: Order reversed, etc.