THE JUDGE PRONOUNCED A FELONY SENTENCE WITHOUT AN UPDATED AND COMPLETE PRESENTENCE REPORT; SENTENCE VACATED (FIRST DEPT).
The First Department, vacating defendant’s sentence after his period of incarceration was served but before his postrelease supervision was complete, determined the absence of a complete and updated presentence report invalidated the sentence:
Where a person is convicted of a felony, the court must order a presentence investigation of the defendant and it may not pronounce sentence until it has received a written report of that investigation (CPL 390.20[1] …). The presentence report must be current and contain updated information pertinent to the imposition of a proper sentence … . We hold that the presentence report in this case was inadequate, as it omitted crucial information regarding defendant’s history of trauma, mental health and substance abuse issues and failed to include a victim impact statement, among other things (CPL 390.30). We particularly note that defendant had not been interviewed prior to the report’s issuance and that Probation requested an adjournment of sentencing so that the newly assigned case officer could conduct the investigation.
Defendant, who was not represented by his assigned counsel at sentencing, did not waive his entitlement to a current, updated report by failing to affirmatively object to the presentence report’s sufficiency … . People v Camacho, 2025 NY Slip Op 02136, First Dept 4-10-25
Practice Point: A judge cannot pronounce sentence for a felony before receiving an updated and complete presentence report.
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