Opinion
7601.
January 17, 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.
Laura R. Johnson, The Legal Aid Society, New York (Adrienne Gantt of counsel), for appellant.
Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Alice Wiseman of counsel), for respondent.
Before: Tom, J.P., Mazzarelli, Sullivan, Nardelli and McGuire, JJ. Concur.
Defendant is not entitled, pursuant to the amelioration doctrine of People v. Behlog ( 74 NY2d 237), 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). 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).