Two men convicted of killing Malcolm X exonerated half a century later
Two men who for decades steadfastly maintained their innocence in the 1965 assassination of the civil rights leader Malcolm X were exonerated on Thursday, after nearly two years of reinvestigation.
Muhammad Aziz, now 83, and the late Khalil Islam were convicted in 1966, after a trial in which authorities withheld evidence favorable to the defense, said their attorneys, the Innocence Project and civil rights lawyer David Shanies.
The Manhattan judge Ellen Biben dismissed the convictions of Aziz and Islam on Thursday afternoon. “I regret that this court cannot fully undo the serious miscarriages of injustice in this case and give you back the many years that you lost,” she said. As the motion to toss out the convictions was granted, the courtroom burst into applause.
Aziz, clad in a dark green suit and glasses, stood and read a statement in front of Biben and other court spectators. “I do not need this court, these prosecutors or a piece of paper to tell me I am innocent … I am an 83-yearold who was victimized by the criminal justice system.
“I hope the same system that was responsible for this travesty of justice also takes responsibility for the immeasurable harm caused to me,” he said, adding that his wrongful conviction is one “that is all too familiar to Black people”.
The recent investigation found information in FBI files about witnesses who could not identify Islam and implicated other suspects, according to the district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr. The files revealed that the late FBI director J Edgar Hoover ordered agents to tell witnesses not to reveal that they were informants when talking with police and prosecutors, he said.
“I apologize for what were serious, unacceptable violations of law and the public trust … There is one ultimate conclusion: Mr Aziz and Mr Islam were wrongfully convicted of this crime,” said Vance Jr.
The co-founder of the Innocence Project, Barry Scheck, also condemned the wrongful conviction, saying, “The damage done to them and their families ... is immeasurable.” Had exculpatory evidence been made public, “it would have changed the history of the civil rights movement in this country”, he added.
Malcolm X was killed on 21 February 1965, at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, as he was beginning a speech.
Aziz, Islam and a third man, Mujahid Abdul Halim – also known as Talmadge Hayer and Thomas Hagan – were convicted of murder in March 1966 and sentenced to life in prison.
Hagan said he was one of three gunmen who shot Malcolm X, but he testified that neither Aziz nor Islam was involved. The two always said they were innocent and offered alibis. No physical evidence linked them to the crime.
Malcolm X gained national prominence as the voice of the Nation of Islam, speaking about the importance of Black people claiming their civil rights “by any means necessary” in his highly visible role with the Black Muslim organization.
But he later split with the group
and, after a trip to Mecca, started speaking about the potential for racial unity. It earned him the ire of some in the Nation of Islam, who saw him as a traitor. Aziz was released in 1985. Islam was released two years later and died in 2009. Both continued to press to clear their names.