State Superior Court has sent the Ronald Weiss case back to Indiana County Court for further consideration of an appeal by the convicted murderer of a teenage girl. Judge Thomas Bianco must examine more closely the testimony of former Deputy State Attorney General John Scott Robinette, whose misconduct in prosecuting the case in 1997 led to Weiss’s appeal.
Last year, Bianco ruled that despite finding Robinette’s actions “extremely flawed and troubling,” “outrageous,” and the product of “arrogance and ignorance”, they were not intentional, and therefore Weiss was not entitled to a new trial for the 1978 murder of Barbara Bruzda of Tunnelton. In essence, the judge ruled that the murder of Bruzda was a separate issue from the misconduct of Robinette, and should not vacate Weiss’s conviction.
Weiss appealed based on the concept of double jeopardy, which was suggested as a possible defense by U.S. District Judge Mark Hornack in reversing the conviction in 2018.
The court ruling on Friday found that while Bianco ruled that Robinette’s misconduct was not intentional, he “did not consider or address whether Robinette’s actions constituted reckless behavior.” Reckless prosecutorial misconduct, according to a Supreme Court ruling in another case, could open up a case to the risk of double jeopardy.
The case returns to Indiana County Court for further consideration of Robinette’s testimony.
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