One of the three men convicted in the assassination of Malcolm X is seeking USD 40 million in compensatory damages from the City of New York after he was proven innocent of involvement in the killing last year.
Muhammad Aziz was arrested on February 26, 1965 at the age of 26 for killing the civil rights leader, who died on February 21, 1965 in New York City. Aziz was convicted the next year and sentenced to life in prison.
After a two-year investigation, Aziz and one of his co-defendants, Khalil Islam, were exonerated in November 2021 when then-Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. filed a motion seeking dismissal. Aziz and Islam were members of the Nation of Islam and were found to have been at their homes the day Malcolm X was killed. Islam’s name was cleared after his death in 2009.
In a legal complaint filed Thursday, Aziz sued the City of New York and the now-former New York Police Department (NYPD) officers involved in his arrest, arguing that his rights under 42 U.S. Code § 1983 and 1988 and the Fourth, Fifth and Fifteenth Amendments of the US Constitution were violated, particularly protection against unreasonable seizure and the protections of due process of law.
The filing outlines a concerted effort by the NYPD’s intelligence unit, the Bureau of Special Services and Investigations, to “fabricate evidence,” manipulate jury witnesses and coerce false identifications, among other acts carried out with “considerable assistance” from the FBI.
The complaint argues that “[t]he NYPD Case Detectives were under immense pressure from their superiors and others to arrest and charge at least two persons with the murder of Malcolm X and to do so quickly.”
Aziz spent 20 years in prison, from 1965 until 1985, when he was released. At the time of his arrest, he was a married father of six. The complaint states, “The damage done to Mr. Aziz and his family was immense and irreparable” and that he spent 55 years with the “stain” of being Malcolm X’s killer on his name.
Aziz’s lawyers have filed six causes of action against the city, demanded a jury trial and requested at least USD 40 million in compensatory damages.
