Court Opinion

ID: 9773439
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:46:01.006531+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:53.904980
License: Public Domain

Pigott, J. (dissenting).
On November 27, 1995, defendant was convicted of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree (Penal Law § 265.02 [4]), a class D violent felony, and was sentenced to an indeterminate term of 2-4 years. Defendant was arrested for drug-related offenses on August 24, 2002. In March 2003, he was convicted of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third and fourth degrees, sentenced to concurrent indeterminate terms of 10-20 years and 3-6 years, respectively, and adjudicated a predicate felon based upon his weapons possession conviction.
Defendant moved for resentencing under the Drug Law Reform Act of 2009 (2009 DLRA), asserting that he did not have a “predicate felony conviction for an exclusion offense” which, as relevant here, is defined as:
“(a) a crime for which the person was previously convicted within the preceding ten years, excluding any time during which the offender was incarcerated for any reason between the time of the commission of the previous felony and the time of the commission of the present felony, which was: (i) a violent felony offense as defined in section 70.02 of the penal law” (CPL 440.46 [5] [a] [i] [emphasis supplied]).
Because, in my view, the phrase “within the preceding ten years” refers to the 10 years preceding the drug felony for which resentencing is sought, defendant has a predicate felony conviction for an “exclusion offense” and is not entitled to resentencing.
The Penal Law utilizes the term “predicate felony conviction” to define the relationship between a prior conviction and *444an instant one (see Penal Law § 70.06 [1] [b] [ii]). In that context, the only natural reading of CPL 440.46 (5) (a) is that the 10-year look-back period should be measured from the date of the “present felony” (i.e., the drug offense for which defendant seeks resentencing). Notably, the term “present felony” is similarly used in Penal Law § 70.06 (1) (b) to refer to the instant felony from which the court is expected to measure in determining whether a defendant has a predicate felony conviction.
It is also significant that CPL 440.46 (5) (a)’s tolling provision references a definitive time period—one that runs from the time of the “commission of the previous felony and the time of the commission of the present felony,” excluding periods of incarceration. There is no express tolling provision for the time a defendant spends incarcerated on the drug offense for which he seeks resentencing, which, in my view, evinces the Legislature’s intent that the only relevant time period for tolling purposes was that time between the commission of the violent felony offense and the drug offense. Under this interpretation, a post-incarceration tolling provision would have been unnecessary where the 10-year look-back period runs from the date of the commission of the drug offense for which defendant seeks resentencing.
Defendant interprets the term “predicate felony conviction” as referring to the relationship between the prior conviction and the date of the application for resentencing. There is no support in either the Penal Law or the CPL for that interpretation and, specifically, there is no reference in the statute that the 10-year look-back period should run from the date of the application. Such an interpretation encourages the kind of gamesmanship that occurred here, where defendant, upon initially learning that he fell within the 10-year look-back period because he moved for resentencing too early (thereby rendering him ineligible), asked Supreme Court to deem his application as being submitted at a later date. The court complied with this request, which, in my view underscores the fallacy of defendant’s argument, namely, that as long as a defendant with a violent felony offense spends enough time incarcerated and does not commit a violent felony while incarcerated, he will eventually be able to seek resentencing.
I agree with the majority that the 2009 DLRA is remedial in nature, but only for certain classes of people sentenced under the Rockefeller Drug Laws: those who have never committed a second violent felony offense or a persistent violent felony *445offense (see CPL 440.46 [5] [b]), and those convicted of a violent felony offense committed more than 10 years prior to the commission of the drug offense upon which they seek resentencing, “excluding any time during which [they were] incarcerated for any reason” (CPL 440.46 [5] [a]). When it enacted the 2009 DLRA, the Legislature’s intent was to make resentencing available to a finite number of individuals who, due to their nonviolent histories or their having committed violent felony offenses sufficiently remote in time, were entitled to partake in these reforms. The underlying intent of the DLRA reforms was not, in my view, to permit drug offenders with violent histories to reap the benefits of these reforms on a “rolling” basis by counting the time they are incarcerated on the drug felony offense as part of the 10-year look-back period.
Accordingly, I would reverse the order of the Appellate Division.
Judges Cipaeick, Graffeo and Jones concur with Chief Judge Lippman; Judge Pigott dissents and votes to reverse in a separate opinion in which Judges Read and Smith concur.
Order affirmed.