PEOPLE v. HASSEN (2006)

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, New York.

The PEOPLE of the State of New York, Respondent, v. Rudy HASSEN, Defendant-Appellant.

Decided: February 07, 2006

ANDRIAS, J.P., SAXE, FRIEDMAN, CATTERSON, MALONE, JJ.

Laura R. Johnson, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Adrienne Gantt of counsel), for appellant. Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Richard L. Sullivan of counsel), for respondent.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (John Cataldo, J.), rendered October 27, 2003, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the second degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 6 years to life, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant is not entitled, pursuant to the amelioration doctrine of People v. Behlog, 74 N.Y.2d 237, 544 N.Y.S.2d 804, 543 N.E.2d 69 [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 A.D.3d 861, 804 N.Y.S.2d 1 [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 N.Y.2d 661, 666-667, 603 N.Y.S.2d 280, 623 N.E.2d 1 [1993] ).

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