On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was assassinated in the Audubon Ballroom located at Broadway and West 165th Street in New York City. The assassination took place at 3:00 p.m. before Malcolm could deliver his speech to the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which he founded and led.
One or more persons at the rear of the ballroom created a noise diversion by shouting about the presence of a pickpocket before throwing a smoke bomb into the crowd. During the confusion, a gunman armed with a sawed-off shotgun approached the rostrum and fired two blasts into the chest of Malcolm. Mujahid Abdul Halim (aka Thalmage Hayer), armed with a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol, and a third gunman, armed with a nine millimeter semi-automatic Luger pistol, ran toward the stage, firing multiple shots into Malcolm’s body.
The two gunmen escaped the assassination scene. Halim could not because he was wounded in the leg by one of Malcolm’s bodyguards. Halim did manage to make it outside in front of the ballroom, where he discarded the .45 caliber pistol. An individual took the gun to his home and disassembled it before surrendering it to the police several hours later. Halim had several .45 caliber bullets in his possession at the time of his arrest.
The shotgun and Luger pistol were later found in front of the ballroom where the gunmen had discarded them. Several individuals handled the guns during the commotion. The shotgun was later found in the anteroom of the ballroom, and the Luger disappeared.
On February 26, 1965, police arrested Muhammad A. Aziz (aka Norman 3X Butler). On March 3, 1965, Khalil Islam (aka Thomas 15X Johnson) was arrested as the other gunman in Malcolm’s assassination.
On March 10, 1965, a New York County grand jury indicted all three men for first-degree murder in Malcolm’s assassination.
On January 20, 1966, a jury began hearing evidence in the trial of the three men. The prosecution had twelve witnesses. Ten of those witnesses placed Halim in the ballroom, with most of them identifying him as a shooter in the case. Seven witnesses also identified Aziz and Islam as the other two gunmen involved in the assassination.
However, there were numerous inconsistencies in the testimony of witnesses about what they saw and how events unfolded in the ballroom that day.
The prosecution called nine police officers and the county coroner to testify about physical evidence and the cause of Malcolm’s death. While some physical evidence could directly tie Halim to Malcolm’s assassination, none of it in any way connected Aziz or Islam to the crime. Nor was the prosecution able to associate Aziz and Islam with Halim in any way before the crime.
From the moment of their arrests, both Aziz and Islam strenuously denied any involvement in Malcolm’s assassination, and the two men presented credible alibis that showed they could not have committed the crime.
Halim testified during the February 1966 trial of the three men that he did not participate in Malcolm’s assassination. However, when called as a defense witness by Aziz’s attorney, Halim recanted his earlier non-involvement testimony and admitted to his guilt in the crime. He then testified that neither Aziz nor Islam were involved in the murder.
On March 11, 1966, the three men were found guilty as charged. All three were sentenced to life imprisonment on April 14, 1966. Aziz was released on parole in 1985, while Islam was paroled two years later in 1987. Islam died in 2009. Halim was paroled the following year in 2010.
Halim signed two sworn affidavits on November 30, 1977, and February 25, 1978, attesting that Aziz and Islam had “nothing to do with” Malcolm’s assassination.
In 2020, Netflix aired an original documentarytitled “ Who Killed Malcolm X? ” that raised serious questions about the guilt of Aziz and Islam in Malcolm’s assassination. The documentary, the media coverage surrounding its revelations, and a requestby the New York-based Innocence Project prompted outgoing Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance to reopen the Malcolm X case and review all the events leading up to the convictions of Aziz and Islam. That review included but was not necessarily limited to:
The results of the review led the Conviction Integrity Program (CIP) in Vance’s office to file a “ Joint Motion to Vacate Judgments of Conviction and Dismiss Indictment ” in the Aziz and Islam cases. The motion informed the Supreme Court of the State of New York County of New York: Part 99 of the following reasons for the motion:
Based on these findings and conclusion, the New York City trial court grantedVance’s motion, set aside the convictions of Aziz and Islam, and exonerated both men of any involvement in Malcolm X’s assassination.
In making that ruling, Manhattan Judge Ellen Biben said “there can be no question that this is a case that calls out for fundamental justice.”
Why did it take so long for this “fundamental justice” to arrive?
Aziz and Islam should never have been convicted. The two men were convicted to cover up the rolethat FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and NYPD Commissioner Michael J. Murphy had in the surveillance and, perhaps, the assassination of Malcolm X.
And why would these two high-ranking law enforcement officials, and others in influential government positions, want to see Malcolm X gone?
An October 11, 1963 speechMalcolm delivered at the University of California (Berkeley) called “ Racial Separation ” outlined the state of Black America:
“But the white man is misjudging the times, and he is underestimating the American so-called Negro because we’re living in a new day. Our people are now a new people. That old Uncle Tom-type Negro is dead. Our people have no more fear of anyone, no more fear of anything. We are not afraid to go to jail. We are not afraid to give our very life itself. And we’re not afraid to take the lives of those who try to take our lives. We believe in a fair exchange.
“We believe in a fair exchange. An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth. A head for a head and life for a life. If this is the price of freedom, we won’t hesitate to pay the price.”
The same white fear that Malcolm X stirred in the racist soul of much of white America in 1963 continues to fuel White prosecutors today. This prejudice has led to generations of innocent Black men being framed and sent to prison, just as the prosecutors and police did to Aziz and Islam in 1966. This fear and hate encourages militarized police to gun down innocent unarmed Black men, women, and children perceived to be threats.
As evidenced by the January 6, 2021 insurrection, the white ruling class in America today still stands in fear of the defiance of Black America, as outlined by Malcolm X in that 1963 Berkeley speech.
A nation does indeed reap what it sows.
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