PEOPLE v. HOLMES (2023)

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (James A. McCarty, J.), entered on or about August 21, 2020, which denied defendant's CPL 440.20 motion to set aside his sentence, unanimously affirmed.

Defendant's claim that his sentence is unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment because his asthma allegedly places him at a high risk of serious illness or death in the event that he is infected with COVID–19, and because he is allegedly under a high risk of being infected while incarcerated, is moot because he completed the prison component of his sentence (see People v. Beltran, 165 A.D.3d 565, 565, 84 N.Y.S.3d 764 [1st Dept. 2018]).  There is no basis for applying the exception to the mootness doctrine (see generally Matter of Hearst Corp. v. Clyne, 50 N.Y.2d 707, 714–715, 431 N.Y.S.2d 400, 409 N.E.2d 876 [1980]).  To the extent that defendant nevertheless argues that this appeal is not moot because he would be under the same alleged risks if reincarcerated on the underlying judgment during his remaining months of postrelease supervision, we find that, even if the appeal is not moot, defendant has not established that his sentence is unconstitutional.  We decline to address any other issues.