Muhammad Azia, 83, Gets Exonerated From the Assassination of Malcolm X
How once again the justice system failed another Black man, purposely
While it was great news to hear that a judge exonerated two men in the killing of Malcolm X due to the authorities withholding evidence is heartbreaking on so many levels.
Muhammad Aziz, 83, gets to see daylight outside the New York City courthouse on Thursday from his conviction of the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X, a Civil Rights icon.
It took over fifty years for two men convicted in the slaying to be found not guilty of a crime they always proclaimed they did not do. Judge Ellen Biben in Manhattan dismissed the charges against Muhammad Azia and the late Khalil Islam after their attorney and the prosecutors found new evidence that confirmed that these two men were not involved in the killing of Malcolm X and it was determined that evidence was withheld by the authorities, the late FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, and the New York City police department.
Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam maintained their innocence from the start in the 1965 killing at Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom. They were paroled in the 1980s and Islam died in 2009.
Malcolm X traveled worldwide extensively and finally to Mecca. Mecca is in a desert valley in western Saudi Arabia and is Islam’s holiest city, as it’s the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad and the faith itself. Only Muslims are allowed in the city, with millions arriving for the annual Hajj (pilgrimage). Dating from the 7th century, the central Masjid al-Haram (Sacred Mosque) surrounds the Kaaba, the cloth-covered cubic structure that’s Islam’s most sacred shrine.
Malcolm X became a voice of the Nation of Islam as he beckoned all Black people to claim their civil rights “by any means necessary.” Malcolm X’s voice was heard all around and about Harlem where the Nation of Islam building resided.
His trip to Mecca was a turning point in his life and his followers. During this time he split with the Black Muslin organization and turned to speaking about racial unity.
Before his transformation to racial unity, he was the darling of the Black Muslim organization, and his departure from their organization caused much dissension between him and some of its members who called him a traitor.
February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was shot to death as he spoke at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. He was only 39 years old. His death resonated hard in the Harlem community and around the world.
Aziz and Islam, aka Norman 3X Butler, and Thomas 15X Johnson during that time along with a third party, Mujahid Abdul Halim, were convicted of murder in March 1966. All were sentenced to life in prison.
Mujahid Abdul Halim, aka Talmadge Hayer, and aka Thomas Hagan, confessed to assassinating Malcolm X and admitted that Aziz nor Islam was involved. These two men had alibis and there was no physical evidence that linked them to the crime.
Halim was paroled in 2010 and claimed that there were some other men who were his accomplices but no arrests were ever made and no one has been made accountable.
Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam vindication came after a recent investigation that found information in FBI files about witnesses who couldn’t identify Islam and implicated other suspects.
The late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had his hand in this investigation as he ordered agents to tell witnesses not to reveal that they were informants when talking to the police and prosecutors.
According to the prosecution, this order given by the late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was an unacceptable violation of law and public trust. Hoover had his hand all around the Civil Rights movement, the many leaders of the movement, and was known for his underhanded tactics and surveillances.
Hoover’s actions spoke volumes regarding the apprehension of these two men being retained and found guilty of a murder they did not commit, even in the face of them having credible alibis and being told by the man who pulled the trigger they were not involved but he had other accomplices.
Attorney Barry Scheck, co-founder of the Innocence Project, a lawyer for Aziz and for Islam’s family advised how the FBI and police hid evidence from the prosecutors which seem to be part of a plot to disrupt the Black civil rights movement. Everyone knew how Hoover was notorious and relentless in trying to stop the Civil Rights movement and its leaders at various times.
To show how ruthless Hoover was, he and the New York Police Department sat on evidence that they had that would have proved the innocence of Aziz and Islam within hours after the assassination of Malcolm X but chose to ignore and suppress the evidence according to an attorney who worked with a civil rights attorney.
The NYPD and the FBI are cooperating with this current investigation and the NYPD Chief of Patrol extended her heartfelt apology to Malcolm x’s family and for Aziz and Islam regarding the possibility that the FBI and the NYPD withheld crucial evidence from the case, sending two innocent men to prison.
For all these years, questions had surrounded this case but the airing of a documentary series, “Who Killed Malcolm X?”, triggered interest where these same attorneys decided to revisit the case with a fresh look.
To date, no one knows for sure who killed Malcolm X and who ordered the hit. The new transformed Malcolm X was powerful and gaining momentum especially in the Harlem community and somebody was not happy.
One day, the truth will surface as it is sealed away in someone’s records, heart or mind, and somehow, and someway it will surface. But at present, the truth is Mr. Aziz and Mr. Islam were wrongfully convicted of a crime that they did not commit and they and their families need to be compensated by New York City and the FBI.
In conclusion, thankful for the exoneration of these two men, even as one lays in his grave haunted by what New York City and the FBI did to him. Sadly to conclude, but these two men are not the exception in the penal system but the norm. Someone will pay sooner or later for all these attroctites against people of color.
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