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| Photo Credit: AP. |
Three men were Friday freed in connection with a 1994 killing of a New York City subway token clerk after spending three decades in prison.
The clerk
was set on fire in a subway toll booth in one of the most horrifying murders in
the city. A judge dismissed the murder convictions of Vincent Ellerbe, James
Irons and Thomas Malik after prosecutors said the case was built on falsehood
–filled confessions, shaky witness identifications and other flawed evidence,
The Associated Press reports.
The three
men confessed to and were convicted of murdering token seller Harry Kaufman in
1995.
Malik and
Irons, both 45, left court free for the first time in three decades. Ellerbe
was paroled in 2020.
“What
happened to us can never be fixed,” Ellerbe told the court as he quietly
described the ordeal of prison, The Associated Press reported. “They break you,
or they turn you into a monster.”
Irons said
he felt “great.” while Malik said the dismissal was “definitely too little, too
late, but everything takes time.”
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“I just was
happy that I was able to stand strong to endure this journey,” Malik continued.
“But it was a rough journey.”
The three
men said they were coerced into falsely confessing in the case by detectives
who were later accused of forcing confessions and framing suspects.
According to
The Associated Press, Irons was home with his mother, around the corner from
the subway station, when he heard the explosion and called 911 – a call that
was never played for jurors, his lawyer David Shanies said.
Kaufman was attacked on November 26 1997 while working an overnight shift on overtime to earn more money for his son’s future college tuition. The attackers reportedly first tried to rob him, then squirted gasoline through the tollbooth coin slot and ignited the fuel with matches,
The Associated Press quoted authorities as
saying at the time. The booth exploded and the 50-year-old Kaufman ran from it
in flames and died two weeks later from his injuries.
When police
questioned Irons, they got a confession that he acted as a lookout. He
implicated Malik and Ellerbe as the ones who had torched the tollbooth,
according to the outlet.
The three
men maintained that they were coerced into false confessions with Malik saying
Detective Louis Scarcella screamed at him and slammed his head into a locker.
Scarcella admitted his yelled at him and hit the table to scare him.