| People v Anonymous |
| 2007 NY Slip Op 07069 [43 AD3d 806] |
| September 27, 2007 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| The People of the State of New York,Respondent, v Anonymous, Appellant. |
—[*1] Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, New York (Dennis Rambaud of counsel), forrespondent.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Robert H. Straus, J.), entered on or aboutSeptember 16, 2005, which denied defendant's motion to be resentenced, unanimously affirmed.
In 1997, defendant was convicted of conspiracy in the first degree (Penal Law §105.17). Although the conspiracy related to class A drug felonies, the court properly denied hismotion because resentencing under the Drug Law Reform Act is only available to those personswho were convicted of offenses defined in article 220 of the Penal Law (see L 2004, ch738, § 23).
While Penal Law § 5.00 provides that Penal Law provisions "must be construedaccording to the fair import of their terms to promote justice and effect the objects of the law," acourt has no power to rewrite a statute, or ignore an essential part of it to meet the circumstancesof a particular case (see People v Herskowitz, 80 Misc 2d 693, 695 [1975], affd51 AD2d 1047 [1976], affd 41 NY2d 1094 [1977]). "[C]ourts are obliged to interpret astatute to effectuate the intent of the Legislature, and when the statutory language is clear andunambiguous, it should be construed so as to give effect to the plain meaning of [the] wordsused." (People v Finnegan, 85 NY2d 53, 58 [1995], cert denied 516 US 919[1995] [internal quotation marks and citations omitted].)
"The failure of the Legislature to include a matter within a particular statute is an indicationthat its exclusion was intended" (People v Tychanski, 78 NY2d 909, 911 [1991][citations omitted]). If the Legislature had intended to include conspiracy to commit drugoffenses, it could have inserted the necessary language, and its failure to do so is presumed to be[*2]intentional (see People v Pinkoski, 300 AD2d 834,836-837 [2002], lv denied 99 NY2d 631 [2003]). Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Saxe,Friedman, Marlow and Williams, JJ.