People v Alvarado
2008 NY Slip Op 01614 [48 AD3d 329]
February 26, 2008
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, April 16, 2008


The People of the State of New York, Respondent,
v
Leon Alvarado, Appellant.

[*1] Steven Banks, The Legal Aid Society, New York City (Denise M. Fabiano of counsel), for appellant.

Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Marc Krupnick of counsel), for respondent.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Daniel P. FitzGerald, J.), entered on or about March 16, 2006, which denied defendant's motion to be resentenced pursuant to the 2004 Drug Law Reform Act (DLRA), unanimously affirmed.

Defendant's argument that the provision of the DLRA which permits a court to deny a resentencing application if substantial justice so dictates violates Apprendi v New Jersey (530 US 466 [2000]) is unavailing (People v Alea, 46 AD3d 398 [2007]).

The court providently exercised its discretion in denying resentencing (see id.), in view of the seriousness of defendant's drug crime, as well as his violent criminal history. We note that in addition to his life sentence for the underlying first-degree drug sale, defendant is serving a concurrent life sentence for murder. Concur—Lippman, P.J., Tom, Nardelli, Catterson and Moskowitz, JJ.