Who Killed Malcolm X?: where to watch the documentary about the assassination of the activist

The Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vince Jr. made history on 18 November 2021 when he announced that Muhammad Abdul Aziz and Khalil Islam, who fifty-six years earlier were charged with the assassination of Malcolm X, would be exonerated.

The announcement came after a team of the district attorney’s office and lawyers representing the two men completed an investigation that lasted almost two years into the conviction. The investigation was opened after the 2020 documentary series ‘Who Killed Malcolm X?’ reinvigorated public interest in the case. Today, 19 May, would have been Malcolm X’s 99th birthday, and for many, watching the documentary is one way to remember his legacy and the controversy surrounding his untimely death.

Where can the documentary be watched?

Netflix members can stream all six episodes from the comfort of their homes. The series was released just before the pandemic, and when many were locked down, many viewed it, and their interest prompted the investigation. In response to the investigation’s findings, Vance said they confirmed what many activists and historians had argued for decades: “These men did not get the justice that they deserved.”

The documentary also touches on Malcolm X’s relationship with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, which began keeping tags on the self-proclaimed communist anti-war activist movement in the early 1950s. The surveillance would become more intense as time went on and as other leaders like Martin Luther King Junior ignited the Civil Rights Movement in the country. Malcolm X was assassinated a little under two years before MLK, and it was an event that marked the Geogian pastor’s move away from non-violent forms of resistance.

Responses to the news

Muhammad Abdul Aziz, who has maintained his innocence, responded to the decision, saying since he was found guilty, he knew that illegal and corrupt forces had been at work. In a statement to the press, he said it is now clear that the “process that was corrupt to its core — one that is all too familiar.”

One of the lawyers, David Shanies, released a statement in light of the news explaining how both men had “experienced the agony of decades in prison for a crime they did not commit. They were robbed of their freedom in the prime of their lives and branded the killers of a towering civil rights leader. Muhammad is now 83, and Khalil passed away years ago without ever having had the chance to see his name cleared.”

The Innocence Project, an organization that works to overturn wrongful convictions, was also involved in the investigation and released a statement on the historic move. Barry Scheck, one of the founders of the Innocence Project, said, “The assassination of Malcolm X was a historic event that demanded a scrupulous investigation and prosecution but, instead, produced one of the most blatant miscarriages of justice that I have ever seen.”