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56 years after the assassination: Two of the convicted murderers of Malcolm X were acquitted
The prosecution in Manhattan has announced that it will overturn the conviction of two members of the Nation of Islam, who along with a third person were convicted of murdering the leader of the civil rights movement and spent decades in prison.
For many years, the case was questioned, and a program on Netflix helped reopen it.
Was the New York Police Department involved?
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Malcolm X.
United States
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Thursday, 18 November 2021, 10:42
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One of the most controversial figures in the civil rights movement.
Malcolm X (Photo: AP)
The prosecution in Manhattan announced yesterday (Wednesday) that two people convicted of the murder of civil rights leader Malcolm X in 1965 will be acquitted for "their wrongful convictions."
This will be an official acknowledgment by the authorities of the mistakes made in the case.
He was shot to death before a speech he was to deliver at a ballroom in New York, and three members of the Islamic Nation were convicted and sent to life in prison.
The conviction of the third person, who confessed to the murder during his trial, still stands.
Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little and also known as al-Hajj Malek a-Shabaz, rose to prominence as the spokesman for the Nation of Islam, an African-American Muslim organization that preached black separatism.
He was a member of it for about a decade, until he split from it in 1964 and moderated some of his extremist views, such as supporting racial segregation.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. in an interview with the New York Times yesterday apologized on behalf of law enforcement.
He said they had failed the two - Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam.
They both ran for decades in prison.
Aziz, 83, was released in 1985.
Islam was released in 1987 and died at the age of 74 in 2009.
"This points to the truth that law enforcement agencies throughout the hysteria have not fulfilled their responsibilities," Vance said.
"They did not get the justice they deserved."
Today the prosecution is due to provide further details on the credit of the two.
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To the full article
A former undercover cop testified to an alleged conspiracy between the NYPD and the FBI.
Ex after being shot, 1965 (Photo: AP, WCBS-TV)
In the years since the assassination, some historians and experts have believed that the wrong people were convicted in the affair. Last year, the Manhattan Prosecution Bureau announced a re-examination of the convicts in the case, which was also discussed in a documentary series on Netflix.
According to the New York Times, the investigation revealed that the prosecution and law enforcement authorities held key evidence, which, if discovered, would likely have led to the acquittal of the two. "There was not even a shred of supervision," said Deborah Francois, a lawyer who represented the two. "It was the result of extreme and blatant misconduct."
In February, Malcolm's family members revealed a letter written by a former undercover cop, who is no longer alive, in which he claimed that New York police and the FBI were behind the murder.
His cop attributed to the letter writing is Raymond Wood.
According to the letter, Raymond Wood's commanders pressured him to seduce two members of Malcolm X's security staff to break the law and so they were arrested days before the fatal shooting.
He claims their arrests prevented them from conducting security at the entrance to the courtroom and it was part of a New York police and FBI conspiracy against Malcolm X.
"Under the instructions of my operatives, I have been told to encourage leaders and members of civil rights movements to commit crimes," Wood wrote.
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