Comment A man acquitted of murdering civil rights leader Malcolm X and the estate of another man whose conviction was thrown out will receive $36 million to settle lawsuits filed on their behalf after prosecutors said the men had not received fair trial. New York City will pay $26 million to Muhammad A. Aziz and the estate of Khalil Islam to compensate them for their 1966 wrongful-death convictions, according to the city’s legal office and a lawyer for the men. The amount will be split equally between Aziz and Islam’s estate, said the lawyer, David Sanies. New York state also agreed to pay $5 million to Aziz and the same amount to Islam’s estate, according to Sanies and court records. “These settlements recognize the innocence of Mohamed Aziz and Khalil Islam, as well as the unconscionable violations of the law by the police and prosecutors sworn to uphold it,” Sanies said in an email. “The damage caused by wrongful convictions can never be undone, but we owe it to history and the people whose lives were destroyed to face the truth and try to make amends.” Stephan Muklal, deputy chief of staff for New York’s legal department, said his office agreed with former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.’s conclusion that Aziz and Islam had been wrongfully convicted. “This settlement brings some measure of justice to people who spent decades in prison and carried the stigma of being falsely accused of murdering an iconic figure,” Muklal said in a statement. The New York attorney general’s office did not respond to a message seeking comment. The payments serve as another public mesa culpa for the combined 42 years that Aziz, 84, and Islam, who died in 2009, served in prison before prosecutors admitted they made a tragic mistake. The pair were acquitted in November after a jury previously found them guilty of complicity in the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X on stage at Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom. Malcolm X: Who Was He, Why Was He Assassinated, and Who Did It? A Netflix documentary released in 2020 released new evidence that cast doubt on Aziz and Islam’s involvement, prompting Vance to launch a two-year review of their first-degree murder convictions. He ultimately concluded that there were deep flaws in the prosecution, including hidden documents, conflicting eyewitness accounts, and apparently solid alibis uncovered in the decades after the convictions. Aziz and Islam were vindicated in November when a New York Supreme Court judge threw out their convictions decades after Aziz was released on parole in 1985 and Islam in 1987. Talmadge Hayer, who is Mujahid Abdul Halim, confessed the crime and always maintained that Aziz and Islam were innocent. Standing before a judge at his acquittal hearing, Aziz said the outcome validated what had always been true. “While I don’t need a court, prosecutors or a piece of paper to tell me I’m innocent, I’m glad that my family, friends and the lawyers who have worked with me and supported me over the years are finally seeing the truth. everyone is officially recognized,” he said. In July, Aziz and Islam’s estate sued New York and former law enforcement officials for $40 million in damages for their wrongful convictions. Aziz and Islam’s estate had been discussing possible settlements with the city since August, according to court records from federal cases in the Eastern District of New York. Federal Judge Robert M. Levy recommended that the parties reach a settlement, according to filings released Saturday. They served decades in prison for the assassination of Malcolm X. Now their names are being cleared. As a Black religious leader and activist, Malcolm X was controversial among Black and White Americans. He advocated black empowerment and the adoption of Islam among blacks, while espousing the virulently anti-white ideology of the Nation of Islam, for which he was a spokesman. But his fiery nature also won him the admiration of many. Malcolm X eventually left the Nation of Islam after becoming disillusioned with its leader and softening his views on Whites. Rumors that the Nation was plotting to assassinate him began to swirl. At 39, Malcolm X was killed before a speech when an assassin rushed the stage and shot him in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun. Two other people shot him in the ankle and thighs. The assassination prompted both substantively informed debate and conspiracy theories about the identity of the perpetrators. Shanies and the Innocence Project, a nonprofit that pushes for criminal justice reform, have long been trying to clear the names of Aziz and Islam. New York Supreme Court Justice Ellen Biben apologized to Aziz and Islam’s family as she overturned their convictions last year. “I regret that this court cannot completely undo the serious judicial failures in this case and give you back the many years that were lost,” he said. Shayna Jacobs and Sydney Trent contributed to this report.
