State v. Mail

James Mail challenges the trial court's denial of his motion to vacate the judgment and standard range sentence imposed in 1990 for one count of attempted assault in the first degree. He contends that the sentencing judge violated the Sentencing Reform Act of 1981 (SRA), RCW 9.94A, when the court independently reviewed the contents of a prior court file containing Mail's 1981 second degree assault conviction. That conviction was listed in the criminal history section of Mail's 1990 presentence report. Mail was not advised that the trial court had read the 1981 file until the judge, in…