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Dec. 22, 2011
State’s Attorney Lisa Thayer Welch announced on Tuesday that she has filed in Washington County Circuit Court an Application for Leave to Appeal the Granting of the Motion to Reopen a Closed Post-Conviction Proceeding and the Granting of Post-Conviction Relief in the case of Roberto Oskar Rezek.
Washington County judge Daniel Moylan recently reversed Rezek’s 1980 murder conviction in the shooting death of Garrett County sheriff’s deputy David Livengood.
“For post-conviction proceedings, there is no automatic right to appeal an adverse decision, but the aggrieved party must ask permission from the Court of Special Appeals to proceed with an appeal,” Welch noted.
In the application, she cited a number of errors that she believes Moylan committed.
“If the application is granted, the Office of the Attorney General will pursue the merits of the appeal itself,” Welch said.
Judge Fred C. Wright III presided over Rezek’s Washington County jury trial more than 30 years ago. Rezek was sentenced to life plus 15 years for first degree murder, robbery, grand larceny, and breaking and entering.
Moylan ruled in November that Wright gave improper jury instructions. Citing two Maryland Court of Appeals decisions, Moylan said Wright’s instruction on the law to the jury should have been binding and not advisory.
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