56 years later, Muhammad A. Aziz and the late Khalil Islam’s names have been cleared. Thursday, New York County Supreme Court Justice Ellen Biben, dismissed the convictions of the aforementioned after a re-investigation determined that authorities had withheld evidence proving the mens’ innocence.
Aziz called his conviction “the result of a process that was corrupt to its core — one that is all too familiar” even today. (AP News)
“I do not need a court, prosecutors or a piece of paper to tell me I am innocent,” he said in a statement. But he said he was glad his family, friends and lawyers would get to see “the truth we have all known, officially recognized.” (AP News)
A third man, Mujahid Abdul Halim, who was convicted alongside the exonerated two admitted to shooting Malcolm X while maintaining that Aziz and Islam had nothing to do with it. He identified some other men as accomplices, but no one else has ever been held accountable for the crime. (Yahoo)
Aziz is now 83 years old and Islam passed away in 2009.
