By Brigid Kennedy, The Week

Two men convicted of assasinating Malcolm X were exonerated Thursday afternoon, after a renewed investigation uncovered evidence that proved the men “were not involved with the killing and that “authorities withheld some of what they knew,” The Associated Press reports.

The news comes after “decades of doubt” as to who killed the civil right’s icon, writes AP.

“There can be no question that this is a case that calls out for fundamental justice,” said Manhattan judge Ellen Biben, who threw out the convictions of both Muhammad Aziz and the late Khalil Islam, per The Wall Street Journal and AP.

“The event that has brought us to court today should never have occurred,” said Aziz to the court. “I am an 83-year-old man who was victimized by the criminal justice system.” Aziz and Islam had long maintained their innocence. Both were paroled in the 1980s, and Islam died in 2009, per AP.

“There is one ultimate conclusion: Mr. Aziz and Mr. Islam were wrongfully convicted of this crime,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. told the court, noting there will be no retrying of the 56-year-old case, per AP. He also apologized for law enforcement’s “serious, unacceptable violations of law and the public trust.”

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