THREE men sent to prison on charges of murder in a brutal murder have been convicted by a New York judge.
The dismissal came as a shocking twist in the decades-old case involving a subway clerk, who was killed and set on fire at a toll booth in November 1995.
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Police said token seller Harry Kaufman, a 50-year-old father, was on a night shift at a Brooklyn subway station when attackers attempted to rob him. NBC New York reported.
The suspects injected gasoline into the booth and set it on fire with matches with Kaufman reportedly pleading, “Don’t light it!”
The booth exploded when Kaufman ran outside while engulfed in flames. His death came two weeks later.
Vincent Ellerbe, James Iron and Thomas Malik were teenagers when they were sent to prison for the 1995 murder of the subway clerk.
The teens eventually confessed to the crime and were sent to prison for 25 years.
But the judge said those confessions were based on false information and poor evidence.
All three men were convicted Friday of murder by the Brooklyn judge, allowing two of the three to be released from prison.
In the July 15 ruling to dismiss the charges, the judge concluded that the false confessions and other flaws in the case were used to secure the convictions.
“What happened to us can never be resolved,” Ellerbe, 44, said in court, according to the Associated Press.
“They either break you, or they turn you into a monster.”
Ellerbe was released on parole and released from prison in 2020, but Malik and Irons remained behind bars.
The recent ruling allowed Malik and Irons to be released from prison after 25 years.
Both are now 45 years old.
After the verdict, Malik told the Associated Press that it was “definitely too little, too late, but everything takes time.”
“I was just happy that I was strong to get through this journey,” Malik said.
“But it was a tough journey.”
Their case is one of many that has been reconsidered as part of an initiative by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office.
The judge reviewed the three men’s cases after it was re-examined by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, reported the New York Times.