A man demands $50 million from New York: he was unfairly imprisoned for 27 years

Thomas Malik served 27 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. On December 11, he sued the city of New York and two detectives, demanding compensation for lost years and psychological damage, writes ABC News.

Malik is seeking at least $50 million in compensation. He is one of three men who served nearly three decades in prison for the murder of Harry Kaufman. In 2022, prosecutors withdrew all three charges and found those convicted to be innocent. Malik's former co-defendants, Vincent Ellerbe and James Irons, also demanded compensation.

“Malik seeks compensation for the malpractice that caused him to spend nearly 27 years in prison, as well as for the mental and physical injuries he suffered while incarcerated,” attorneys Ronald Kubi and Ridaya Trivedi wrote in the lawsuit.

On November 26, 1995, 50-year-old Harry Kaufman was brutally murdered in New York. He was manning a ticket booth at a subway station in Brooklyn one night when a group of people tried to rob the booth. The attackers sprayed gasoline into the coin slot and set the booth on fire; Kaufman burned to death.

As a result, Malik, Irons and Ellerbe were accused of murder. But last year, Brooklyn prosecutors concluded that the men's convictions were based on flawed evidence and false and conflicting confessions (the defendants themselves have long said they were coerced into confessing).

Malik was identified during the procedure with violations. Moreover, the witness had previously persistently pointed to another suspect, but the police released that man.

On the subject: Six months in prison for an extension: a New Yorker was sent to Rikers Island for disobeying his neighbors

Former detectives Steven Chmil and Louis Scarcella played major roles in the investigation, with Chmil serving as the lead detective and Scarcella receiving Malick's confession. In recent years, the now-retired partners have been repeatedly accused of coercing testimonies and tampering with evidence. More than a dozen convictions in Scarcella cases have been overturned.

The former detectives deny any wrongdoing. Their lawyer declined to comment on Malik's lawsuit, which names them as defendants along with the city.

Malik is now a free man, 46 years old, married and living out of New York State. But prison has left him so psychologically scarred that he can barely leave the house, and simply putting on his seat belt reminds him of being constrained by handcuffs and triggers symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, the lawsuit says.