The family of Malcolm X is filing a new $100 million lawsuit against the New York City Police Department for their role in covering up evidence related to his assassination.
On Tuesday, civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Malcolm X’s daughters, Qubilah Shabazz and Ilyasah Shabazz, held a news conference in Manhattan. In addition to the NYPD, they announced their plans to go after New York City, New York state, the district attorney’s office, the FBI, and the CIA. The wrongful death suit alleges that the government agencies purposefully withheld evidence from the men who were wrongfully convicted of the February 1965 murder. Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam spent over two decades behind bars for the slaying before being exonerated in 2021. A third man, Mujahid Abdul Halim, was also found guilty. He confessed to the murder during his trial but has long maintained that the other two men did not participate in X’s death.
Islam passed away in 2009, but Aziz, now 84, was awarded $36 million for the wrongful conviction. The family of X believes that since law enforcement dropped the ball with bringing X’s actual killers to justice, they should also be compensated. Crump says the lawsuit is about those who “conspired with the triggermen” to carry out the slaying.
It’s unclear exactly what evidence the government suppressed in X’s case, but his family has fought for justice for years. The government has long been believed to have covered critical facts in the case. Some even argue that the government aided the assassins in carrying out the murder plot. So far, none of the agencies have commented publicly on the lawsuit.
