Prosecutors seek to dismiss convictions against trio jailed for horrific 1995 New York subway murder

DA cites ‘serious problems with the evidence’ as it moves to vacate murder convictions

Transit workers dismantle the charred inner wall of a token booth at the Kingston Avenue and Fulton Street subway station in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, November 26, 1995, after attackers sprayed a flammable liquid into the token booth and set it on fire (Associated Press)

Prosecutors say they can no longer stand by the convictions of three men who spent decades in prison for the murder of a clerk who was set on fire in a subway toll booth.

Vincent Ellerbe, James Irons and Thomas Malik confessed to and were convicted of murdering token seller Harry Kaufman in 1995.

The case was one of the most horrifying crimes of New York’s violent 1990s — resounding from New York to Washington to Hollywood, after parallels were drawn between the deadly arson and a scene in the movie Money Train.

Mr Kaufman was working an overnight shift at a Brooklyn subway station on 26 November 1995, when attackers first tried to rob him, then squirted gasoline into the booth and ignited it with matches while he pleaded, “Don’t light it!”

The booth exploded, and the 50-year-old subway worker ran from it in flames. The married father died of his injuries two weeks later.

But Brooklyn prosecutors were joining defence lawyers in asking a judge on Friday to dismiss all three men’s convictions.

“The findings of an exhaustive, years-long reinvestigation of this case leave us unable to stand by the convictions,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a release.

He cited “serious problems with the evidence on which these convictions are based” and acknowledged “the harm done to these men by this failure of our system.”

The confessions conflicted with evidence at the scene and with each other, and witness identifications were problematic, prosecutors say.

Some of the men have long said they were coerced into falsely confessing in the case, which had a lead detective who later was repeatedly accused of forcing confessions and framing suspects.

Ellerbe, 44, was paroled in 2020, but Malik and Irons, both 45, have remained in prison.

Malik was still getting his head around the long-awaited news Friday morning, lawyer Ronald Kuby said.

“Yesterday was the first day that he actually allowed himself to believe that he’s going to be free,” said Kuby, who also represents Ellerbe and said the latter is “extraordinarily happy” to see his conviction thrown out.

A message seeking comment was left with Irons’ attorney.

Associated Press contributed to this report