Team News Riveting
The two men convicted for the assassination of Malcolm X are expected to exonerated on Thursday.
This was informed by the Manhattan district attorney and lawyers for the two men, rewriting the official history of one of the most notorious murders of the civil rights era.
The exoneration of the two men, Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam, represents a remarkable acknowledgment of grave errors made in a case of towering importance: the 1965 murder of one of America’s most influential Black leaders in the fight against racism.
A 22-month investigation conducted jointly by the Manhattan district attorney’s office and lawyers for the two men found that prosecutors and two of the nation’s premier law enforcement agencies — the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the New York Police Department — had withheld key evidence that, had it been turned over, would likely have led to the men’s acquittal.
The accused, known at the time of the killing as Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson, spent decades in prison for the murder that took place on February 21, 1965, in which three men opened fire inside a crowded ballroom at the Audubon Ballroom in Manhattan as Malcolm X was starting to speak.
Malcolm X was born on May 19, 1925 and was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a popular figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Islam (NoI) until 1964, he was a vocal advocate for Black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the Black community.
After he left the organisation, his conflict with the Nation of Islam intensified, and he was repeatedly sent death threats. On February 21, 1965, he was assassinated in New York City. Three Nation members were charged with the murder and given indeterminate life sentences. The NoI had denied the charges that its members were involved in the murder.
