Three long-retired Philadelphia police detectives will go on trial after being accused of lying under oath in the 2016 retrial of a man a jury acquitted of a 1991 rape-murder case.
If this case goes to trial in November, it will be an unprecedented situation in which police and prosecutors face criminal charges for flawed operations that lead to wrongful convictions.
Prosecutors seek death penalty for PA triple murder suspect
Of the roughly 3,500 people acquitted of serious crimes in the United States since 1989, more than half were ruined by allegations of police or prosecutor misconduct, according to a national database.
The Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refinery is visible in front of the Philadelphia skyline. (Reuters/David M. Parrott)
Former detectives Martin Devlin, Manuel Santiago and Frank Justzemski, now in their 70s, were sentenced to a judge’s decision because of what they called prejudicial evidence presented before the grand jury that indicted them. They wanted the case dismissed.
Philadelphia U.S. Attorney Lucretia Clemons on Friday acknowledged the procedural error but said the remaining evidence was sufficient to send the case to trial. She agreed that the defense would consider appealing the grand jury issue to state Superior Court before trial.
An unusual confluence of factors led District Attorney Larry Krasner to investigate the case of Anthony Wright, who was acquitted in 1993 of the rape and murder of an elderly widow two years earlier. could be prosecuted. The detectives testified at a retrial in 2016, and a five-year window to bring perjury charges was reopened.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Wright was arrested when he was 20 years old and spent 20 years in prison until DNA testing appeared to exonerate him. Nevertheless, Krasner’s predecessor chose to retry him and called retired detectives to testify against him.
