Court Opinion

ID: 5691867
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-01-12 15:28:29.962345+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:40:09.940442
License: Public Domain

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Carol Berk-man, J.), rendered March 6, 2003, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the second degree, and sentencing him to a term of three years to life, unanimously affirmed.
Defendant is not entitled, pursuant to the amelioration doctrine of People v Behlog (74 NY2d 237 [1989]), to the benefit of the reduced penalty contained in the Drug Law Reform Act (L 2004, ch 738), because the Legislature has expressly stated that the provision upon which defendant relies applies only to crimes committed after its effective date (People v Nelson, 21 AD3d 861 [2005]). In any event, the amelioration doctrine does not apply where, as here, a defendant was sentenced before the new law’s effective date (People v Walker, 81 NY2d 661, 666-667 [1993]). Concur—Tom, J.P., Andrias, Gonzalez and Sweeny, JJ.