Three Men Convicted in Grisly 1995 NYC Subway Murder Exonerated

            The three men who were convicted of murdering a man in a subway toll booth on November 26, 1995, were exonerated of the charges after pleading their innocence for 27 years. The three men, Vincent Ellerbe (44), James Irons (45), and Thomas Malik (45), have been released after being in jail for over 25 years.

            On that day in 1995, the victim Harry Kaufman (50) was working overtime at his usual subway toll booth to save for his son’s college tuition, when he was attacked and attempted to be robbed. According to NPR, when the robbers were unsuccessful, they squirted gasoline into the coin slot and lit a match as he pleaded with them not to, leading to the booth exploding and Kaufman dying of his burns.

            The three men that were identified and taken in by police were coerced into falsely confessing, with investigators physically threatening the men and feeding them details of the incident while ignoring less than solid witness identifications and confession inconsistencies. According to CBS, the primary detective involved in the investigation has also been repeatedly accused of framing suspects and forcing convictions.

            Last Friday, Malik and Irons were finally released, while Ellerbe was released onto parole in 2020. Commenting on his prison sentence, Ellerbe was quoted as saying: “What happened to us can never be fixed. They break you, or they turn you into a monster." With their release, New York Prosecutors are looking back at hundreds of other, older cases, concerned with possible other forced confessions and falsely convicted people.