Scholars have never accepted the official explanation for the murder. That is unlikely to change.
Even before a judge tossed out the convictions of two men who had been found guilty of killing her father, Malcolm X, Ilyasah Shabazz said the hard work of unraveling the truth behind the notorious assassination was still to be done. “My family still seeks justice for the murder of our father,” Ms. Shabazz said in a statement on Thursday. She welcomed the two men’s exonerations, but added: “Full justice will not be served until all parties involved in the orchestrated killing of our father are identified and brought to justice.” The remarkable court hearing exonerating the two men, Khalil Islam and Muhammad A. Aziz, who had steadfastly maintained their innocence, clears up one corner of the historical record. But the Manhattan district attorney’s 22-month re-investigation of the case, conducted with lawyers for Mr. Aziz and Mr. Muhammad, was never meant to resolve the larger mysteries surrounding the crime, the lawyers said. “There are many questions that are going to be asked about the culpability of the N.Y.P.D., about the culpability of the F.B.I.,” David B. Shanies, one of the lawyers for the two men, said. “I can say, as a general matter, our clients support any effort to get to the truth.” Among the more intriguing details from the district attorney’s exoneration motion: The shotgun that killed Malcolm X and was recovered at the scene can no longer be found. Official records that might shed light on what happened that day are also lost or have been heavily redacted. “This brings us closer to understanding the mishandling of the prosecution, but there still remains the question of why those responsible were not investigated and prosecuted,” said Tamara Payne, who with her father, Les Payne, wrote the most detailed account yet of the murder, “The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X,” which won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for biography.
