The convictions of two men have been overturned in New York: They are innocent in the murder of Malcolm X. That is certain 56 years after the crime. But the case is as puzzling now as it was then.
It is February 21, 1965, a Sunday in New York. Malcom X knows he is in great danger. The charismatic black civil rights activist fell out with his former organization, the “Nation of Islam” and its leadership. He has founded a new movement and is threatened by former companions. Exactly a week earlier, an arson attack had been carried out on his family’s house, and Malcolm X and his relatives narrowly escaped. Should he stop speaking in public and fight for black emancipation in the US?
Bodyguards protect the 39-year-old when he gives a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights. Suddenly a commotion breaks out. Two listeners quarrel, Malcolm X’s bodyguards intervene to calm things down. Everything is going according to plan for the assassins. Because the argument is pretended to be a trap. The distraction of the bodyguards is intentional.
Fatal shots in New York
A man takes advantage of the mess, pulls a sawed-off shotgun from his coat and shoots the unprotected Malcolm X. Two other attackers shoot too. A total of 21 bullets are fired at the civil rights activist. He won’t survive this Sunday. When a smoke bomb is finally detonated, the chaos is perfect.
This smoke never really cleared, because the circumstances of the assassination attempt on Malcolm X are still partly in the dark, although several men were caught and convicted after the crime. As we now know, two sentences were passed against two innocent men. The convictions of Muhammad Aziz and Khalil Islam were overturned this week – over half a century after that fateful Sunday.
They had been in prison for two decades for a crime they did not commit. It is true that they were released in the 1980s after they had served their prison sentence, and they always protested their innocence. But the stigma of being involved in the murder of Malcolm X hung on them, the stigma weighed on them and their families.
Malcolm X is controversial – but also an inspiration to many Americans
Malcolm X was and is controversial, because for him violence was a legitimate means in the fight for the rights of African Americans. For his unwavering commitment, however, he has many admirers to this day, he is considered one of the most important figures of the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s.
This is one of the reasons why the rehabilitation of the two innocent people convicted of the attack is a big issue – both in New York and across the country. Questions are raised: How did the two innocent men even get convicted?
They had only been arrested days after the crime and the man who had been arrested at the scene and confessed to the attack had confirmed their innocence. At the time he had admitted to being involved in a plot. According to him, his accomplices were not Azis and Islam.
The confessed perpetrator, the then 23-year-old Thomas Hagan alias Mujahid Abdul Halim, was convicted. There is no doubt about his guilt either, the sentence against him has not been overturned. In 2010 he was released on probation after 45 years in prison. He is now 80 years old.
Officially innocent at the age of 83
Muhammad Aziz, one of the two men who have now been rehabilitated, is also an old man today. His words sound bitter; he received confirmation of his innocence very late in life. “I don’t need this court, these defense attorneys, or a piece of paper to tell me I’m innocent,” the New York Times quoted Aziz as saying. “I’m an 83-year-old who has been criminalized by the judicial system.” Khalil Islam did not see his sentence overturned – he died in 2009.
At that time, the two got caught in a mill of justice and a web of false accusations that is still difficult to see through today. In the end, it was thanks to a Netflix documentary that her case was reopened at all: The show “Who Killed Malcolm X?” pursued a thesis of the hobby historian Abdur-Rahman Muhammad: According to this, Aziz and Islam are innocent, and the – lawfully convicted – Halim made common cause with four other members of the “Nation of Islam”.
The new investigation into the case lasted 22 months. In the end, the Manhattan public prosecutor’s office, which, together with lawyers from Aziz and Islam and the Innocence Project organization, reopened the case, came to a conclusion similar to that of the hobby historian.
New York City Attorney Cyrus Vance speaks of “decades of injustice”
“I regret that this court cannot reverse the serious errors of justice in this case and give you back the many lost years,” said New York judge Ellen Biben when she declared the guilty verdicts invalid on Thursday. “There is no doubt that this case cries out for basic justice.” The New York prosecutor Cyrus Vance also apologized for “decades of injustice”. It was he who initiated the review of the case.
What the investigators found out during their review of the case outraged many Americans: prosecutors, the Federal Police FBI and the NYPD, i.e. the New York police, withheld evidence that would have acquitted Aziz and Islam. The “New York Times” reports that research by the FBI had identified completely different suspects at the time. Undercover agents are also said to have been in the room on the fateful Sunday – a circumstance that the prosecutor’s office kept secret during the trial. Finally, the new investigation revealed that Azis did have a valid alibi.
Only those who were involved in the murder of Malcolm X – this question has not yet been conclusively answered.
Sources: CNN, “The time“, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Reuters, with material from AFP and DPA