The man wrongfully accused of killing civil rights leader Malcolm X in 1965 sued New York City for $40 million after spending two decades in prison for a crime he did not commit. Also, for being blamed for over 55 years despite not being near Malcolm X’s murder scene.
84-year-old Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam were blamed for the civil rights leader’s death, even though testimonies clarified that the two weren’t involved. Both were exonerated (Aziz exonerated in November 2021) of the crime, yet, as Aziz stated, the prison time caused “immense and irreparable” damage to the families and the accused.
Islam’s estate filed a similar lawsuit in Brooklyn on his behalf. He died in 2009 at 74 years old.
“They got a small measure of justice when their convictions were vacated, Aziz and Islam’s lawyer, Deborah Francois, told Reuters. “But we want to hold government officials accountable for misconduct that led to their wrongful convictions and decades of living with the stigma of being labeled Malcolm X’s murderers.”
New York Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement that the city was assessing Aziz and Islam’s claim.
“As someone who has fought for a fairer criminal justice system for my entire career, I believe the overturning of Mr. Aziz and Mr. Islam’s convictions was the just outcome. We are reviewing this lawsuit,” Mayor Adams said.
Aziz, Islam and a third suspect, Mujahid Abdul Halim, were convicted for the Feb. 21, 1965, murder of Malcolm X at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan, despite Halim informing investigators that Aziz and Islam weren’t involved.
The reconsideration trial followed the release of a Netflix documentary, Who Killed Malcolm X. The information and research shown in the film dictated that Aziz and Islam were wrongfully convicted.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. teamed with the Innocence Project and the office of civil rights lawyer David Shanies to provide justice to the two men. In their re-investigation, they discovered that critical elements of the case were lost.
So, if crucial information was lost and a witness/suspect confirmed Aziz and Islam weren’t involved, how did that lead to their wrongful conviction?
Author George Breitman, who died of a heart attack in 1986, captured many details surrounding the Malcolm X murder trial in his novel, “The Assassination of Malcolm X,” from reliable testimonies to unreliable ones. He began with facts that the Organization of Afro-American Unity hosted a rally on Sunday, Feb. 21, 1965, in the Audubon Ballroom. When Malcolm started his speech, two men caused a commotion to successfully distract Malcolm’s guards, allowing three men to rush to Malcolm and open fire. Two of the men got away while New York police captured Halim (formerly known as Talmadge Hayer) with the help of Malcolm’s supporters.
There were news reports of a second suspect being captured. Still, then news publications omitted that information from the stories, which led many people to speculate that the second suspect was an officer because several Bureau of Special Services (BOSS) members were present at the rally. BOSS was a special unit inside the NYPD.
“It is no secret that BOSS police — who never wear uniforms — have credentials to cover almost any situation so that if they were required to have a card or emblem of the Black Nationalist sect, it is a safe bet that they had them,” Milton Lewis, a former staff writer of the Herald Tribune, wrote in a news story.
Ironically, News Onyx previously reported that Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump and Reggie Wood held a press conference on Feb. 20, 2021, to hand Malcolm X’s daughters — Qubiliah Shabazz, Ilyasah Shabazz and Gamilah Shabazz — a letter from Wood’s brother, Ray. The latter was an undercover police officer in New York at the time of Malcolm’s murder. The letter revealed that Ray was involved in the murder and a part of BOSS.
Breitman wrote about the discrepancies in police officials’ answers to whether or not there was law enforcement outside. One official said there was one patrolman outside; another said there was special detail, and another said there were 20 police, yet witnesses at the event said there were little to no police from the moment the rally started to when the shooting happened. If it weren’t for Malcolm’s supporters, police would have no suspects captured, which led to the belief that undercover officials planned the attack.
Police assumed the attack was the work of a feud between Malcolm and Black Muslims because he accused them of attempting to murder him after his house was bombed on Feb. 14. An excellent setup for police officials involved with Malcolm’s murder.
Aziz and Islam were well-known Black men associated with the Nation of Islam (NOI), yet both men were home when the murder happened. In spite of Halim’s testimony, it took certain forms of coercion from detectives for individuals to falsely identify Aziz and Islam.
Courthouse News had a copy of Aziz’s complaint, which revealed that the NYPD and FBI had undercover officers, informants, and witnesses present when Malcolm was murdered. Many saw the shooters and had their names (William Bradley, Leon Davis and Halim). They even knew where they were sitting when the shooting happened.
None of the valuable information was disclosed at the trial.
Defendant Eugene Roberts posed as a security guard for Malcolm while working for BOSS and witnessed the shooters sitting in the front row. Yet he testified in court, saying that he had nothing to do with Malcolm’s assassination and that he had no reason to believe Aziz was innocent.
The minister Benjamin Karim testified that when he spoke, he had the chance to observe the audience and did not see Aziz. Karim added that Malcolm’s security knew Aziz and would not have allowed him in the Ballroom without Aziz facing scrutiny.
