A man falsely convicted of murdering Malcom X has said he "doesn't need a court to tell me I am innocent" after he and another were exonerated of the 1965 killing.
Muhammad Aziz, now 83, and Khalil Islam, who died in 2009 aged 74, were convicted in 1966 and spent decades behind bars, with Aziz being released in 1985 and Islam being released in 1987.
But the decision to exonerate the pair was announced by the Manhattan district attorney's office on Wednesday, saying it will move to "vacate the wrongful convictions."
The conviction of the third man, who had confessed to the murder at the time of his trial, still stands.
In a statement released by his lawyers, Aziz said: "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 recognised."
He added: “The events that brought us here should never have occurred; 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.”
A nearly two-year investigation conducted jointly by the Manhattan D.A. and lawyers for the two men found that prosecutors and law enforcement agencies withheld key evidence that, had it been turned over, would likely have led to the pair's acquittal, according to the Times.
"This wasn't a mere oversight," said Deborah Francois, a lawyer with Shanies Law Office. "This was a product of extreme and gross official misconduct."
Some historians and scholars have contended that the wrong men were convicted. Vance's office said last year it would review the convictions in the case.
Malcolm X rose to prominence as the national spokesman of the Nation of Islam, an African-American Muslim group that espoused Black separatism.
He spent over a decade with the group before becoming disillusioned, publicly breaking with it in 1964 and moderating some of his earlier views on racial separation.
He was shot dead at New York City's Audubon Ballroom while preparing to deliver a speech.
