PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Three long-retired Philadelphia detectives are standing trial in a perjury case that examines whether police should be held responsible for alleged misconduct in exoneration cases.
Opening statements began Tuesday. It’s a highly unusual case, given that the men are now between 75 and 80 years old and face prison time if convicted. They were all retired when a rape and homicide case from the early 1990s was retried in 2016. They were called back to testify, restarting the five-year clock to file perjury charges.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner — who frequently sued police during his career as a civil rights lawyer — charged former detectives Martin Devlin, Manuel Santiago and Frank Jastrzembski in 2021, days before the statute of limitations was set to expire.
The case stems from an elderly woman’s rape and murder in 1991. A 20-year-old neighbor, Anthony Wright, spent two decades in prison before DNA testing seemed to clear him of the crime. His conviction was thrown out, but Krasner’s predecessor decided to retry him.
“That case was remarkable,” Maurice Possley, a senior researcher at The National Registry of Exonerations, said of the 2016 retrial. “There was a DNA exclusion, and they said they were going to try it anyway.”
The key piece of evidence remaining was Wright’s confession. His lawyers argued that it was coerced. Police denied it.
But asked to write down the nine-page confession in real time — as Devlin said he had done at the time — the once-famed homicide detective gave up after just a few words. The jury quickly acquitted Wright.
Krasner took office in 2018 with a focus on police accountability. He arrested the detectives just under the wire in August 2021.
Santiago and Devlin are accused of lying about the confession. Santiago and Jastrzembski are accused of lying when they denied knowing about the DNA problem. Jastrzembski is accused of lying about finding the victim’s clothes in Wright’s bedroom.
All three men have pleaded not guilty. Devlin is now 80, Jastrzembski is 77 and Santiago is 75. They face up to seven years in prison if convicted of perjury.
Their lawyers have asked the state Supreme Court to dismiss the case, but the court has so far declined to intervene. The defense says 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.”
Wright, who spent 25 years in prison, received a nearly $10 million settlement from the city.
Krasner has championed some 50 exonerations since taking office.
