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New York City Has Agreed To Pay $26M To Men Wrongly Convicted Of Killing Malcolm X
New York City Has Agreed To Pay $26M To Men Wrongly Convicted Of Killing Malcolm X After Spending Over 20 Years In Prison
New York City has agreed to pay $26 million to settle lawsuits filed on behalf of two men whose convictions in the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X were thrown out last year after a judge found “serious miscarriages of justice,” according to the city and federal court records.
The two men, Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam, each spent more than 20 years in prison after their hasty arrests and a trial that relied on questionable evidence in one of the most notorious murders of the civil rights era.
Their exonerations last November — Mr. Islam’s was posthumous — came as allegations of racism and discrimination in the criminal justice system were again prompting national protests and political debate.
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The throwing out of the men’s convictions came after a 22-month investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, then led by Cyrus R. Vance Jr., and the men’s lawyers, which found that prosecutors, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York Police Department had withheld key evidence that probably would have led to acquittals had it been presented to a jury.
“This settlement brings some measure of justice to individuals who spent decades in prison and bore the stigma of being falsely accused of murdering an iconic figure,” Nick Paolucci, a spokesman for the New York City Law Department, said in a statement.
“Based on our review,” Mr. Paolucci said, “this office stands by the opinion of former Manhattan district attorney Vance who stated, based on his investigation, that ‘there is one ultimate conclusion: Mr. Aziz and Mr. Islam were wrongfully convicted of this crime.’”
Mr. Paolucci and David B. Shanies, a lawyer for the two men, said the settlement will be split evenly between Mr. Aziz, who was released in 1985 and is now 84; and the estate of Mr. Islam, who was released in 1987 and died in 2009 at 74.
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