New York City and New York state have agreed to pay a total of $36 million to settle lawsuits on behalf of two men who were wrongly convicted and jailed for decades for assassinating Malcolm X in 1965. Last year, a judge tossed out convictions against Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam after finding serious miscarriages of justice. An investigation by the Manhattan DA’s Office and the Innocence Project found that prosecutors, the FBI, the New York Police Department omitted key evidence around Malcolm X’s murder. Muhammad Aziz spent two decades in prison before being released on parole. He was interviewed by ABC earlier this year.
First of all, the first settlement was with the state of New York. That happened a few months ago. The recent news was the settlement with the City of New York, which happened just last week. Fortunately, and this is the exception, not the norm, both of those entities wanted to come to the table immediately. They were both serious about trying to resolve these cases. And it was important to resolve them quickly. As you know, this case had a 50-year injustice that lingered and lingered and lingered. So, for the government to resolve these cases immediately was essential.
— source democracynow.org | Nov 01, 2022