People v. Love

In People v. Love, (71 NY2d 711, 525 NE2d 701, 530 NYS2d 55 [1988]) the Court held that a defendant's period of imprisonment on a conviction which was subsequently found to have been unconstitutionally obtained could not serve to toll the running of the 10-year period. The Court held that "when the statute says that incarceration 'for any reason' extends the limitations period, it contemplates at least that the defendant has not been imprisoned without reason or unconstitutionally." (71 NY2d at 716.) That holding was extended by the Court of Appeals in People v. Dozier (78 NY2d 242, 577 NE2d 1019, 573 NYS2d 427 [1991]), where the Court held that a sentence which was based on an invalid conviction, even where that invalidity was not based on a constitutional violation, could also not be used to toll the 10-year period. (See also People v. Beard, 143 AD2d 101, 531 NYS2d 351 [2d Dept 1988] [same].) The Court of Appeals held that the period the defendant was incarcerated upon a conviction which was obtained in violation of his constitutional rights could not be relied upon to toll the ten-year limitation period pursuant to Penal Law 70.04(1)(b)(v). The Court held that when P.L. 70.04 states that incarceration "for any reason" extends the limitation period, "it contemplates at least that the defendant has not been imprisoned without reason or unconstitutionally" (Love, 71 N.Y.2d at 717).