In re the Personal Restraint of Hall

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Ronald A. Hall was convicted of assault in the first degree. The sentencing court imposed an exceptional sentence of 366 months, based on its own *348factual findings that the aggravating circumstances of deliberate cruelty and multiple injuries were present. This court granted Hall’s personal restraint petition (PRP) because imposition of the exceptional sentence violated Hall’s Apprendi/Blakely1 Sixth Amendment rights. Based on our understanding that the federal constitution prohibited harmless error analysis of Blakely violations,2 we did not consider whether, in Hall’s case, the failure to…