With the Ronald Weiss case now before State Superior Court, Indiana County Judge Thomas Bianco yesterday granted a motion to allow Weiss to pursue his appeal “in forma pauperis”, meaning he won’t have to pay the normal court fees associated with his case.
The case arrived at the appellate court this week after Weiss’s attorney appealed Bianco’s August ruling that allows the case to move forward with re-prosecution for the murder of 16-year-old Barbara Bruzda of Tunnelton. She disappeared in October of 1978 after being with Weiss at her father’s bar. Her body was found in March of 1979 and Weiss was finally convicted of the murder in 1997. But a federal judge overturned the conviction based on prosecutorial misconduct by the state attorney general’s office.
In allowing the case to move forward, Judge Bianco has accepted the argument by Deputy Attorney General Gregory Simatic that the prosecutorial misconduct and Weiss’s guilt or innocence are two separate issues, and has ruled that the legal concept of double jeopardy does not apply. Attorney Taylor Malcolm Johnson is appealing based on double jeopardy.
The next Superior Court action is scheduled for October 15th, with Judge Bianco expected to file a response to the appeal.
