Indiana County Judge Thomas Bianco on Friday amended his August 1st ruling denying a motion to dismiss the homicide case against 70-year-old Ronald Weiss, allowing for an immediate appeal that may settle the double jeopardy claim.
Specifically, Bianco affirms his decision to deny the motion, which was based on double jeopardy grounds, but adds that he is “of the opinion that such order involves a controlling question of law as to which there is a substantial ground for difference of opinion.” He adds that an immediate appeal may “materially advance the ultimate termination of the matter.”
In 1997, Weiss was convicted of the murder of 16-year-old Barbara Bruzda of Tunnelton, which happened in 1978. However, last year the conviction was overturned by Federal Judge Mark Hornak, who cited prosecutorial misconduct by the state attorney general’s office. Weiss was ordered released from state prison, but was immediately re-arrested and jailed to await a new trial. Hornak wrote in dismissing the case that a retrial would be problematic because of double jeopardy, but after a hearing in January, Judge Bianco accepted Deputy Attorney General Gregory Simatic’s argument that the prosecutorial misconduct and Weiss’s guilt or innocence are separate issues.
