Muhammad Aziz, a man who was arrested at the age of 26 and wrongfully imprisoned for over 20 years for the shooting of Malcolm X, is suing investigators in his case and the city of New York to the tune of $40 million.
Aziz and Khalil Islam were both arrested for the civil rights leader’s 1965 killing, but they were both exonerated last year because state authorities found “serious, unacceptable violations of the law and public trust,” in how their cases were handled. Islam, unfortunately, died in 2009 and was exonerated posthumously.
Aziz is now 84 and is suing New York on the grounds of denial of due process rights, malicious prosecution, and negligence by law enforcement officers. His lawyers claim that Aziz was only convicted due to detectives suppressing contradictory evidence, intimidating witnesses and ignoring that there was “no physical evidence,” tying either suspect to the scene.
A man who actually confessed to the murder, Mujahid Abdul Halim even testified that Aziz and Islam were innocent in the 1966 trial, but they were still imprisoned.
The lawsuit also described the significant damages this wrongful arrest caused to Aziz’s life. He wasn’t present for much of his young children’s lives and was incorrectly smeared and considered “among the most hated and notorious murderers,” in the country for years. “Given the significant length of time between Mr. Aziz’s release from prison in 1985 and his exoneration in 2021, his damages extend well beyond his decades of imprisonment.
