People v. Alyakoub
The defendant, Justice Alyakoub, was apprehended at Kennedy Airport with a significant amount of marihuana and subsequently pleaded guilty to criminal possession in the first degree. A plea bargain for a split sentence of five years' probation with six months' jail time was initially agreed upon. However, the court identified an incongruity in Penal Law § 70.00(4), which ostensibly excluded certain marihuana offenses under Article 221 from its alternative definite sentencing provisions, potentially mandating a harsher sentence than for more serious concentrated cannabis offenses under Article 220. Judge Cornelius J. O’Brien's opinion explored whether this legislative oversight violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Applying a rational basis test, the court found no legitimate state purpose for the discriminatory treatment and, to avoid unconstitutionality, construed Penal Law § 70.00(4) to include class C felonies specified in Article 221, thereby upholding the plea bargain and sentencing the defendant to the agreed-upon split sentence.