People v Julio Lopez

People v Lopez 2005 NY Slip Op 09222 [24 AD3d 131] December 6, 2005 Appellate Division, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. As corrected through Wednesday, February 15, 2006

The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Julio Lopez, Appellant.

—[*1]

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Carol Berkman, J.), rendered January 21, 2004, convicting defendant, upon his plea of guilty, of criminal possession of a controlled substance in the third degree, and sentencing him, as a second felony offender, to a term of 4½ to 9 years, 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 at issue applies only to crimes committed after the statute's 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—Buckley, P.J., Andrias, Saxe, Nardelli and Malone, JJ.