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Jury sent home without reaching a verdict after a day of deliberations in Philly police perjury trial

Detectives Martin Devlin, Frank Jastrzembski, and Manuel Santiago are charged with lying under oath about their 1991 investigation of the rape and murder of 77-year-old Louise Talley in Nicetown.

Retired Philadelphia homicide detective Martin Devlin, seen here inside the Justice Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice on March 19, is awaiting a verdict in his perjury trial along with retired detectives Manuel Santiago and Frank Jastrzembski.
Retired Philadelphia homicide detective Martin Devlin, seen here inside the Justice Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice on March 19, is awaiting a verdict in his perjury trial along with retired detectives Manuel Santiago and Frank Jastrzembski.Read moreAlejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer
    by Max Marin
    Published 

After nearly six hours of deliberations Wednesday, the jury in the perjury trial of three former Philadelphia homicide detectives accused of lying in a murder case ended the day without reaching a verdict and is expected to resume deliberations Thursday morning.

Common Pleas Court Judge Lucretia Clemons sent jurors home at 4:15 p.m.

Detectives Martin Devlin, Frank Jastrzembski, and Manuel Santiago are charged with lying under oath about their 1991 investigation of the rape and murder of Louise Talley, a 77-year-old Nicetown widow. Santiago and Jastrzembski face additional charges of perjury and false swearing in connection with statements they later made in sworn depositions related to the case.

Prosecutors say the three men framed Anthony Wright in a case that sent him prison for decades. Wright’s conviction was later overturned after DNA evidence implicated another man. Then-District Attorney Seth Williams put Wright on trial for murder a second time, but he was acquitted at a retrial in 2016.

» READ MORE: As police perjury trial comes to close, jury to begin deliberating whether officers lied in murder case

The following year, District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office accused the detectives of lying to keep Wright in prison and cover up their misconduct during the initial investigation.

Wright said the detectives forced him to sign a confession under duress and without allowing him to read it. And prosecutors at the perjury trial cast doubt on the confession and other evidence in the case, including clothing the detectives said Wright wore on the night of the crime.

Defense lawyers said the evidence the detectives uncovered in the murder investigation pointed squarely at Wright’s guilt, and they questioned the second jury verdict that set him free.

During deliberations Wednesday, jurors asked to reread transcripts of Santiago and Jastrzembski’s testimony. But by day’s end, they were still weighing the evidence as they worked to reach a verdict.