Indiana County Judge Thomas Bianco has ruled that the retrial of Ronald Weiss can move forward, at least for now, although the question of double jeopardy is still not decided.
Bianco issued two judgments last week, first ruling that the testimony of former State Deputy Attorney General John Scott Robinette may be considered without restriction in determining whether the murder case against Weiss should be dismissed because of double jeopardy. Then the judge ordered the defense and the prosecution to submit briefs addressing all remaining issues for consideration by May 27th, and setting a deadline of June 10th for reply or supplemental briefs.
The 70-year-old Weiss is formerly from Shelocta. He had been serving life in prison for the October 1978 murder of 16-year-old Barbara Bruzda of Tunnelton, but a federal judge last year ordered his release based on prosecutorial misconduct by Robinette and a state police trooper. Judge Mark Hornak said the two clearly misled the jury by testifying that preferential treatment had not been offered to two prison inmates who testified against Weiss at his 1997 trial. After Hornak’s ruling, Weiss was immediately re-arrested before he could be freed.
At a hearing before Bianco in January, Robinette repeatedly testified for nearly three hours that no promises were made to the inmates. The defense objected to Robinette even appearing on the witness stand before Bianco, but the deputy attorney general prosecuting the case said it was pertinent to the case, at the same time asserting that the admissibility of Robinette’s testimony and Weiss’s guilt or innocence are separate issues.
Bianco’s acceptance of Robinette’s testimony virtually guarantees that if Weiss is tried again and found guilty, there will be more appeals filed in Pennsylvania’s higher courts. Weiss was originally sentenced to death, but the sentence was later reduced to life without parole on an appeal by the Federal Defenders Office of Philadelphia, an independent organization that advocates for convicted criminals. The Federal Defenders then won the Hornak decision last year.
