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Dec. 8, 2011
A Washington County Circuit Court judge recently reversed the 1980 murder conviction of a Fairmont, W.Va., man in the shooting death of Garrett County sheriff’s deputy David Livengood.
Judge Daniel Moylan ruled that the judge at Roberto Oskar Rezek’s trial gave improper jury instructions. Rezek was granted a new trial. A date has not yet been scheduled.
Judge Fred C. Wright III presided over Rezek’s Washington County jury trial over 30 years ago. Rezek was sentenced to life plus 15 years for first degree murder, robbery, grand larceny, and breaking and entering.
Moylan ruled that Wright’s instructions on the law to the jury should have been binding and not advisory. Moylan cited two Maryland Court of Appeals decisions in which it was ruled “the court’s instructions are binding on the jury.”
Moylan noted in his ruling that Wright told the jury, “Anything I say to you about the law . . . is merely advisory and you are in no way bound by them. You may feel free to reject my advice on the law and arrive at your own independent conclusions as to what the law is.”
Rezek and his codefendant, Richard Tichnell, had requested a change of venue from Garrett County. Tichnell was convicted of murder by a Wicomico County jury and received the death penalty, which was later commuted to a life sentence. He died in prison in 2006.
More here.
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