NEW YORK >> After decades in prison, three men were cleared Friday in one of the most horrifying crimes of New York’s violent 1990s — the killing of a clerk who was set on fire in a subway toll booth.

A judge dismissed the murder convictions of Vincent Ellerbe, James Irons and Thomas Malik after Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez cited “serious problems with the evidence on which these convictions are based.”

He pointed to doubts about the men’s confessions and problems with witness identifications. The three confessed to and were convicted of murdering token seller Harry Kaufman in 1995. The case resounded from New York to Washington to Hollywood, after parallels were drawn between the deadly arson and a scene in the movie “Money Train.”

“The findings ... leave us unable to stand by the convictions,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said.

— The Associated Press