Former Philadelphia police detective Frank Jastrzembski leaves the Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice, Friday, April 5, 2024, in Philadelphia. Three long-retired Philadelphia police detectives, Martin Devlin, Manuel Santiago and Frank Jastrzembski, are accused of lying under oath at the 2016 retrial of a man the jury exonerated in a 1991 rape and murder.
Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Lucretia Clemons acknowledged mistakes in the grand jury room but said there was enough evidence remaining to send the case to trial. However, she may let the defense appeal the grand jury issue to the state Superior Court before trial.Appeals court leaves hold on New Jersey’s primary ballot system in placeWright was arrested at age 20. He spent two decades in prison before DNA testing seemingly cleared him of the crime.
Lawyer Sam Silver, representing Wright, asked Devlin to write down the nine-page confession in real time, as he said he had done “word for word” in 1991. The once-famed detective — who helpedWright told jurors that police had made him sign the confession without reading it. They deliberated just a few minutes before acquitting him, and Wright, who spent 25 years in prison, later received a nearly $10 million settlement from the city.