New York City has settled a lawsuit with Muhammad Aziz and the estate of Khalil Islam — each spent more than 20 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted in the assassination of Malcolm X
last year following a nearly two-year investigation, which concluded that the two would have likely been acquitted if the Federal Bureau of Investigation and New York Police Department had not withheld key evidence.
Aziz and Islam were both sentenced to life in prison, and each served more than two decades, although they always maintained their innocence. Aziz was paroled in 1983, and Islam was released in 1987 .
David B. Shanies, a lawyer for Aziz and Islam, said the state of New York had reached separate $5 million settlements with the mens’ estates. Malcolm X was killed on Feb. 21, 1965, attacked by three gunmen who confronted him after he began delivering a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in New York. Aziz and Islam were convicted alongside a third man, Mujahid Abdul Halim, who was also found guilty of murder, and sentenced to life in prison.
No physical evidence tied Aziz or Islam to the murder or crime scene. At one point while on the stand, Halim even confessed to his involvement and insisted that Aziz and Islam were innocent.