Two men who were acquitted for the murder of Malcolm X in 550 received a settlement of 36 millions of dollars after lawsuits were filed on his behalf against the city and the New York State.
The City of New York agreed to pay 26 million dollars to settle the lawsuit filed on behalf of Muhammad Abdul Aziz and Khalil Islam. The second was posthumously exonerated for the homicide. For its part, the state of New York also agreed to pay 10 additional millions of dollars.
A spokesperson for the New York City Department of Justice told ABC News on Sunday that the agreement “provides a measure of justice to people who spent decades in prison and bore the stigma of having been falsely accused of murdering an iconic figure”.
“Based on our review, this office supports the opinion of former Manhattan District Attorney Vance, who stated, based on his investigation, that ‘there is one final conclusion: Mr. Aziz and Mr. Islam were wrongfully convicted of this crime,’” he added.
The lawyer representing Aziz and Islam, David Shanies, confirmed the terms of the agreement.
The settlement comes after Aziz and the Islam heritage sued the city of New York on 14 July, looking for 40 millions of dollars for malicious prosecution, denial of due process rights, and government misconduct.
Furthermore, Aziz and the estate of Khalil Islam filed two multi-million dollar civil lawsuits in December 2021 addressed to the government of the State of New York.
The then prosecutor of the District of Manhattan, Cy Vance, vacated the convictions of Muhammad Aziz, aged 84 years, and co-defendant Khalil Islam in November 2021, in what he said “newly discovered evidence and failure to disclose exculpatory evidence” .
“Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam were unjustly convicted and imprisoned for decades, 42 years between them, as a result of the government’s outrageous misconduct and violations of their constitutional rights,” Shanies said in July.
“Justice delayed for too long is justice denied. Mr. Aziz just turned 84 years old and Mr. Islam tragically died before he was will clear his name.”
Aziz, who was a veteran of the United States Navy and father of six children, had 36 years when he was arrested for the murder of Malcolm X in the year 1965, faced a sentence of years in jail.
He was paroled in 2009, two years later, Islam he was also released after serving 20 years in prison. Each appealed his convictions and always maintained their innocence. Islam passed away in 2009 at 74 years. His estate filed a related claim.
The two men belonged to the Nation of Islam and were members of the Malcolm X Mosque #7 in Harlem.
Malcolm X’s confessed killer, Talmadge Hayer, who was captured at the crime scene, testified at his trial that Aziz and Islam were not involved in the murder.
At the end of the decade of the 70, Hayer signed an affidavit naming four other men who he said were involved in planning and carrying out the murder.
However, the case was not reopened until interest in the case was renewed in the year 2020 after the release of “Who Killed Malcolm X?”, a documentary on the Netflix streaming platform that follows the work of independent historian Abdur-Rahman Muhammad, who spent many years investigating the murder.
“After watching the Netflix documentary. I thought there was enough to see this,” Vance told “Soul of a Nation Presents: X/onerated – The Murder of Malcolm X and 55 Years to Justice” on ABC News, which aired on Hulu in February.
District Attorney Vance apologized last year. passed on behalf of the NYPD and the FBI calling them “serious and unacceptable violations of the law and the public trust.”
Aziz spoke about wrongful conviction and the trauma of systemic racism in his first interview on ABC News’ “Soul of a Nation”.
“If God is on your side, it doesn’t matter who is against you. God is on my side,” Aziz said in the interview that aired in February.
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