Two men who for decades steadfastly maintained their innocence in the 1965 assassination of civil rights icon Malcolm X are set to be exonerated Thursday, after a nearly two-year-long re-investigation.
Muhammad Aziz, now 83 and previously known as Norman Butler, spent 22 years in prison before he was paroled in 1985.
“The events that led to my exoneration should never have occurred,” he said. “Those events were and are the result of a process that was corrupt to its core – one that is all too familiar – even in 2021. While I do not need a court, prosecutors, or a piece of paper to tell me I am innocent, I am glad that my family, my friends, and the attorneys who have worked and supported me all these years are finally seeing the truth we have all known, officially recognized. I am an 83-year-old man who was victimized by the criminal justice system, and I do not know how many more years I have to be creative. However, I hope the same system that was responsible for this travesty of justice also take responsibility for the immeasurable harm it caused me.”
A co-defendant who also maintained his innocence, Khalil Islam, died in 2009.
Vance’s office, along with the Innocence Project and civil rights attorney David Shanies, began reexamining the investigation nearly two years ago.
“The assassination of Malcolm X was a historic event that demanded a scrupulous investigation and prosecution but instead produced one of the most blatant miscarriages of justice that I have ever seen,” said Barry Scheck, with the Innocence Project. “Officially correcting the false historical narrative around one of the most significant events in 20th century U.S. history allows us to learn from and prevent future miscarriages of justice. Indeed, as George Orwell once said, ‘He who controls the past controls the future.’ Nowhere is that seen more clearly than in this case.”
