PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The trial of three long-retired Philadelphia detectives accused of lying about evidence in a homicide case that later ended with an exoneration wrapped up with a mixed verdict Thursday.
Martin Devlin was acquitted on all charges, while Frank Jastrzembski was acquitted on all but one count and Manuel Santiago was acquitted of two charges but convicted on two others.
The trial was a highly unusual prosecution since few public officials are ever charged with crimes over their work in innocence cases.
The detectives were all retired when a 1991 homicide case was retried in 2016. They were called back to testify, restarting the five-year clock to file perjury charges.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner had charged the three in 2021, days before the statute of limitations would have expired.
The case stemmed from the 1991 rape and killing of an elderly widow during an apparent burglary. Anthony Wright, then 20, was convicted of rape and murder and spent 25 years in prison before DNA testing pointed to someone else. His conviction was thrown out, but Krasner’s predecessor decided to retry him. Wright was acquitted at the retrial.
The key piece of evidence remaining was Wright’s confession. His lawyers argued that it was coerced. Police denied it. But at the retrial, Devlin struggled to write down the nine-page confession in real time, as he said he had done at the time.
Wright, who left school after seventh grade, said he was handcuffed to a chair at police headquarters and forced to sign the statement. The second jury quickly acquitted him, sending him home from prison after 25 years.
In court this month, Wright acknowledged signing every page in cursive and initializing the section on his Miranda rights. He said he was familiar with the victim, Louise Talley, because his aunt lived next door. But he denied killing her.
He endured hours of cross-examination about his alibi the night of the rape and killing and his later accusations against police. Defense lawyers also grilled him about a series of witnesses at the initial 1993 trial who implicated him in the crime. They said those witnesses had led police, correctly, to identify Wright as the killer.
“Just because Tony Wright got away with murder, it doesn’t mean these men weren’t telling the truth,” said lawyer Fortunato Perri Jr., who represents Santiago.
Krasner, a former civil rights lawyer, took office in 2018 with a focus on police accountability and charged the detectives three years later. He has since championed some 50 exonerations.
Santiago and Devlin were charged with lying about the confession. Santiago and Jastrzembski were accused of lying when they denied knowing about the DNA problem. Jastrzembski was accused of lying about finding the victim’s clothes in Wright’s bedroom.
Devlin is now 80, Jastrzembski is 77 and Santiago is 75. None of them testified during the trial.
Jastrzembski was found not guilty of three counts of perjury and two counts of false swearing on official matters, but was convicted on another false swearing count related to testimony he gave at the 2016 retrial regarding prior knowledge of the DNA results.
Santiago was acquitted of perjury and false swearing counts related to testimony he gave at the 2016 retrial regarding the 1991 interrogation of Wright, but was found guilty of perjury and false swearing related to testimony at the 2016 retrial regarding the DNA results.
Devlin was acquitted on two counts of perjury and one count of false swearing.
The defense insisted that Krasner’s office tainted the grand jury that heard the case by telling the panel the detectives had a history of “committing perjury ... and beating statements out of people.”
However, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has declined to hear pretrial appeals on the issue.
Perri said Thursday that the verdict was inconsistent and vowed to appeal. He said it was clear that the testimony of Jastrzembski and Santiago showed they were confused about what the DNA meant at the time.
Speaking at a news conference, Krasner said he couldn't comment on the defendants or discuss some issues in detail since the case remains ongoing, noting the two convicted detectives are due to be sentenced in June. But he said the guilty verdicts “send a very, very important message that I hope everyone who participates in law enforcement will see and hear, which is they don't know everything, the evidence knows, and you don't have to mess with it, just find it.”
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Associated Press reporter Bruce Shipkowski contributed to this story from Toms River, New Jersey.
FILE - Former Philadelphia police detective Martin Devlin leaves the Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice, Friday, April 5, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Joe Lamberti, file)
FILE - Former Philadelphia police detective Frank Jastrzembski leaves the Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice, April 5, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Joe Lamberti, file)
FILE - Former Philadelphia police detective Manuel Santiago leaves the Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice, April 5, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Joe Lamberti, file)
