State v. Friedman, A-18/19 September Term 2010; Supreme Court; opinion by Wefing, P.J.A.D., temporarily assigned; decided January 24, 2012. On certification to the Appellate Division, 413 N.J. Super. 480 (App. Div. 2010). [Sat below: Judges Stern, Graves and Newman in the Appellate Division; Judge Snyder in the Law Division.] DDS No. 14-1-4993 [34 pp.]
In this appeal the Court considers whether the Appellate Division correctly applied the No Early Release Act (NERA) when it concluded that a defendant who has been sentenced to three consecutive terms under that statute serves the periods of postrelease parole supervision that are part of a NERA sentence concurrently rather than consecutively. The Court also considers whether State v. Hess mandates striking down a provision of defendant’s plea bargain, under which he agreed his attorney would not seek a concurrent sentence at the time of sentencing, as opposed to the consecutive sentence to which he had agreed.
