A bid will be made to exonerate two men over the murder of Malcolm X, says Manhattan’s DA.
ADVERTISEMENTA bid will be made to exonerate two men over the murder of Malcolm X, says Manhattan's District Attorney.
Cyrus Vance tweeted that along with the Innocence Project and a law firm, he would move to "vacate the wrongful convictions of two men for the murder of Malcolm X."
Muhammad Aziz, aged 83, and the late Khalil Islam would be exonerated after a two-year investigation, the New York Times reported.
The Innocence Project, which works to put an end to wrongful convictions, said that there is no physical evidence that connects Aziz to the crime and that he had an alibi at the time of the event. Both he and Islam had always maintained their innocence.
Civil rights leader Malcolm X, known for his support for black power and self-defence, was gunned down in 1965 in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom.
Aziz, Islam and a third man, Mujahid Abdul Halim — known at the time of the killing as Talmadge Hayer and later as Thomas Hagan — were convicted of murder in March 1966 and sentenced to life in prison.
Hagan said he was one of three gunmen who shot Malcolm X, but he testified that neither Aziz nor Islam were involved.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office publicly acknowledged it was considering reopening the case after Netflix aired a documentary series last year, “Who Killed Malcolm X?”, that explored a theory by scholars that the two men were innocent and that some of the real killers had escaped.