- Two of the three men convicted in
Malcolm X 's 1965 assassination have been exonerated. - Muhammad Aziz, 83, and the late Khalil Islam both had their murder convictions tossed out on Thursday.
Two of the three men who were convicted more than 50 years ago in the assassination of
Muhammad Aziz, 83, and the late Khalil Islam both had their murder convictions tossed out after spending decades behind bars for the 1965 killing that they did not commit.
Aziz and Islam were exonerated following a nearly two-year re-investigation of the case by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. and lawyers for both men.
In 1966, Aziz, Islam, and another man, Mujahid Abdul Halim — also known as Talmadge Hayer and Thomas Hagan — were convicted of murdering Malcolm X and sentenced to life in prison.
Malcolm X, 39, was shot more than a dozen times and killed by three gunmen on Feb. 21, 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan just as he was beginning a speech.
Aziz was released from prison in 1985, while Islam was released two years later. He died in 2009.
Halim, who was released in 2010, has confessed that he was one of the three men who shot Malcolm X, but testified at trial that Aziz and Islam were innocent. Aziz and Islam have long maintained their innocence in the case.
"I want to begin by saying directly to Mr. Aziz and his family, and the family of Mr. Islam, and of Malcolm X , that I apologize for what were serious, unacceptable violations of the law and public trust," Vance said during a hearing in which he moved to vacate Aziz and Islam's convictions at New York State Supreme Court on Thursday.
Vance added, "We can't restore what was taken from these men and their families, but by correcting the record, perhaps we can begin to restore that faith."
Judge Ellen Biben granted the motion to throw out the convictions of Aziz and Islam.
The exonerations follow a re-examination of the case by Vance's office, lawyers from the Innocence Project, and a civil rights attorney that discovered that evidence was previously withheld by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and New York Police Department.
The DA's office launched an investigation in January 2020, finding that the FBI and NYPD withheld information including important documents and the presence of undercover police officers in the ballroom at the time of the shooting, according to The New York Times.
However, a spokesperson for the NYPD told Insider over the phone Wednesday that the department previously provided all evidence to the Manhattan DA's office. Lieutenant Paul Ng with the NYPD said that was all the information he was able to provide.
"This points to the truth that law enforcement over history has often failed to live up to its responsibilities," Vance said, according to The Times. "These men did not get the justice that they deserved."
Historians have alleged wrongdoing in the initial investigation for years, according to Reuters. A docuseries released on Netflix in 2020, titled "Who Killed Malcolm X?", also explored the circumstances behind the activist's assassination.
"This marks a significant and long-overdue milestone for Muhammad Aziz and the memory of Khalil Islam. These innocent men experienced the agony of decades in prison for a crime they did not commit," David B. Shanies, who represented Aziz and Islam, and was involved in reexamining the case, said in a statement Wednesday.
"They were robbed of their freedom in the prime of their lives and branded the killers of a towering civil rights leader," Shanies continued. "They, their families, and their communities have endured decades of pain and suffering. The tragic and unjust events of the past can never be erased but exonerating these men is a righteous and well-deserved affirmation of their true character."
"The recently unearthed evidence of Mr. Aziz and Mr. Islam's innocence that had been hidden by the NYPD and FBI not only invalidates their convictions, it also highlights the many unanswered questions about the government's complicity in the assassination — a separate and important issue that, itself, demands further inquiry," Vanessa Potkin, the director of special litigation for the Innocence Project, said in a statement.
A book documenting the civil rights leader's final words, titled "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," was published the year of his death in collaboration with Alex Haley, who conducted interviews with Malcolm X between 1963 and 1965. In the book, the activist said any credit for his impact on racism in America "is due to Allah."
"If I can die having brought any light, having exposed any meaningful truth that will help destroy the racist cancer that is malignant in the body of America — then, all of the credit is due to Allah," he said. "Only the mistakes have been mine."
Representatives for the FBI, Innocence Project, and attorneys for Aziz and Islam did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on Wednesday.