Convictions will be overturned for pair in 1965 assassination of Malcom X
NEW YORK — Two men found guilty in the Audubon Ballroom assassination of Malcolm X were cleared in the 1965 murder after a lengthy new investigation, with prosecutors set to toss their wrongful convictions at a Thursday hearing, sources told the Daily News.
The stunning announcement followed a 22-month probe by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. and attorneys representing the men found guilty and imprisoned in a long-controversial murder case stretching across parts of six decades.
The revelation of the two men’s innocence raised more questions than it answered, most prominently involving the alleged roles of the NYPD, FBI and prosecutors in the miscarriage of justice against the pair.
All three agencies were exposed for withholding key exculpatory evidence against defendants Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
“The assassination of
Malcolm X was a historic event that demanded a scrupulous investigation and prosecution, but instead produced one of the most blatant miscarriages of justice that I have ever seen,” said attorney Barry Scheck of the Innocence Project.
Fellow Innocence Project lawyer Vanessa Potkin cited the “recently unearthed evidence of Mr. Aziz and Mr. Islam’s innocence that had been hidden by the NYPD and FBI” and called for additional investigation into exactly how the pair were railroaded. The official word on the case was expected to come Thursday at a news conference with Vance, with a massive media turnout expected in the longoverdue exonerations.
According to the Times, the FBI, prosecutors and the NYPD were implicated in the sketchy investigation of a murder that reverberates 56 years after Malcolm was shot 16 times and killed in front of his pregnant wife and three of his daughters.
“The NYPD cooperated fully with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office’s recent review of the investigation and prosecution,” according to a department spokeswoman.