Brown v. Greiner

LEVAL, Circuit Judge.

These three appeals, which we have consolidated, present the same question: Were the state court decisions affirming Petitioners’ extended sentences under New York’s persistent felony offender statute, N.Y. Penal Law § 70.10, “contrary to, or ... an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States”? 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d). The relevant Supreme Court ruling to which the petitions refer is Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), which ruled that in order for a sentence to…