Appellate counsel says trial court imposed 10-year sentence without required validated risk-and-needs assessment

At oral argument before a three-judge panel, attorney Jonathan Harwell, counsel for defendant-appellant Cody Mashburn, told the court the trial judge imposed a 10-year term without considering a validated risk-and-needs assessment (RNR) required by Tennessee law and asked the panel to order a new sentencing hearing.

Harwell said a presentence investigation report was marked and filed as Exhibit 1 but that the PSI did not include a validated RNR. "It was not prepared. It was not submitted to the court," Harwell told the panel, noting the PSI itself stated no RNR had been conducted because Mashburn was on supervised probation.

The issue matters, Harwell argued, because Tenn. Code Ann. §40-35-210 (cited during argument) instructs courts to consider the results of a validated RNR when evaluating sentencing alternatives and that the statutory text twice identifies the RNR as a required consideration. Harwell cited this court s precedent (including Rice and the…