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The Manhattan DA has cited the failure of the administration of justice following a 22-month investigation into the assassination of a US human rights leader.
Two men convicted of killing United States human rights activist Malcolm X nearly 60 years ago should be acquitted, according to a New York lawmaker.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office will move on Thursday to rule on the verdict of Muhammad A Aziz and Khalil Islam for the assassination of a Black leader, journalists and district attorney general said Wednesday.
Witnesses known to be two of the assassins, Aziz, then known as Norman 3X Butler, and Islam, then known as Thomas 15X Johnson, had remained innocent.
“These men did not get the justice they deserved,” Manhattan County Attorney Cyrus R Vance Jr told The New York Times in an interview after reviewing the case with the Innocence Project and human rights lawyers.
Vance wrote on Twitter Wednesday his office refused to “abandon the two superstitious beliefs of the two men” and “more is coming tomorrow”.
One of the most controversial and influential people in the history of human rights, Malcolm X he became famous as the spokesman for the Nation of Islam, proclaiming the message of the Black Muslim movement at the time: racial segregation as a means of self-discovery. He urged black people to take up civil rights “in any way necessary”.
He spent more than a decade building the Nation of Islam before being disillusioned with it in 1964, almost a year before his assassination in New York City on February 21, 1965.
Aziz, Islam and a third person, Mujahid Abdul Halim – known at the time of the assassinations of Talmadge Hayer and Thomas Hagan – were convicted of murder in March 1966 and sentenced to life in prison.
The Manhattan research In the first case it was found that the prosecutors did not conceal the evidence in a court of law which referred to other suspects and would probably have led to the release of Aziz and Muslims.
“This was not a coincidence,” Deborah Francois, the men’s lawyer, told the Times. “This was due to a very bad and very bad behavior.”
Hagan said he was one of three terrorists who shot Malcolm X, but testified that neither Aziz nor Islam were involved.
Aziz, now 83, was released from prison in 1985. Islam was released in 1987 and died in 2009, according to the Times.
Malcolm X was killed in front of his wife and children when he began talking to about 400 people at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights near Manhattan.
A man with a shotgun and a machete rushed to the stage and shot Malcolm once in the chest. Two others with assault rifles fired in front of him, firing on him. He was found dead at a nearby hospital with 21 gunshot wounds.
At his funeral in Harlem there were 30,000 black activists and mourners in the streets.
Historians and scholars alike have argued that the culprits were convicted. Vance’s office said last year it would reconsider its position.
In February, a letter was discovered written by former New York police officer Raymond Wood claiming that the NYPD and the FBI had it. covered more about the murder.
llyasah Shabazz, one of Malcolm X’s three daughters, said at the time the new cases should be investigated.
He stated: “Any evidence that reveals the true nature of the cause of this terrible tragedy should be thoroughly investigated.
Malcolm X’s widow, Betty Shabazz, who witnessed his assassination, left Faith Temple Church of God in Christ in Harlem, New York, on February 27, 1965, following the funeral of a murdered black leader. [File: AP Photo]In 2020, a six-part series called Who Killed Malcolm X? What appeared on Netflix raised doubts about Aziz and Islam’s wrongdoing and prompted New York authorities to reconsider the case.
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