The State Superior Court received four boxes of documents Monday for its consideration of the appeal of Ronald Lee Weiss, the former Shelocta man who is trying to avoid a retrial for the 1978 murder of a teenage girl from Tunnelton. The court then set a schedule for the next action in the case, the filing of a brief by Weiss explaining why his appeal should not be dismissed.
The case was appealed to Superior Court in October after Indiana County Judge Thomas Bianco issued a ruling accepting State Deputy Attorney General Gregory Simatic’s argument that prosecutorial misconduct at Weiss’s murder trial in 1997 is a separate issue from his guilt or innocence in the death of 16-year-old Barbara Bruzda. A federal court tossed out Weiss’s conviction last year, ruling that the state prosecutor who tried the case and a state trooper lied to the jury when they claimed that two prison inmates who testified against Weiss were not offered favorable treatment in exchange for their testimony.
Weiss’s attorneys contend that a retrial would constitute double jeopardy.
The documents forwarded from the county to the appeals court include Bianco’s opinion, a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, transcripts and exhibits introduced in the hearings.
Weiss has been given until January 13th to file his brief.
