PEOPLE v. SHERWOOD (2006)

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Brenda Soloff, J. at plea;  Lewis Bart Stone, J. at sentence), rendered August 11, 2004, convicting defendant of criminal sale of a controlled substance in the fifth degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 2 to 4 years, 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).