Two Men Convicted In Malcolm X’s Assassination Will Be Exonerated

Two of the three men who were found guilty of the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X are expected to have their convictions thrown out Thursday following a two-year reinvestigation, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

Malcolm X Assassination

Malcolm X was killed while standing at a podium, moments away from giving a speech, inside the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem, N.Y.C.

Three men were convicted of the crime and sentenced to life in prison: Mujahid Abdul Halim, Muhammad Abdul Aziz and Khalil Islam. (Islam died in 2009 and Aziz and Halim were released on parole in 1985 and 2010, respectively.)

Aziz and Islam have always maintained their innocence, and Halim, who admitted to his role in the crime, backed up their claims in his 1966 trial, CNN reports. 

PEOPLE reports:

Wednesday, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. tweeted that his office would join Aziz and Islam’s attorneys, civil rights lawyer David Shanies and the Innocence Project, on Thursday in asking a judge to clear their convictions.

The reinvestigation found that the FBI and New York Police Department withheld key evidence that would likely have led to the two men’s acquittal, The New York Times reports.

“The events that led to my conviction and wrongful imprisonment should never have happened. Those events were the result of a process that was corrupt to its core – one that is all too familiar – even in 2021,” Azim told PEOPLE. 

“I am an 83-year-old man who was victimized by the criminal justice system, and I do not know how many more years I have to be creative,” he continued. “However, I hope the same system that was responsible for this travesty of justice also takes responsibility for the immeasurable harm it caused me.”

In February 2020, prosecutors first announced they were reopening the investigation into Malcolm X’s assassination following the release of a Netflix docuseries about the 1965 murder.

The six-part Who Killed Malcolm X? posits that Aziz and Islam were innocent and were not even present when the civil rights activist was fatally shot.