The convictions were connected to eight members of the N.Y.P.D. who “abused their positions of power,” according to the Manhattan district attorney, and came amid hundreds of other dismissals by city prosecutors.
Muhammad A. Aziz and Khalil Islam spent more than 20 years in prison after the civil rights leader was assassinated in 1965. He had broken with the Nation of Islam.
Omar Raddad was convicted in the 1991 killing of a wealthy widow, but scant evidence and a grammatical error sowed doubts about his guilt. He sought a retrial based on new DNA evidence.
He was known for taking on some of Louisiana’s toughest cases, including the wrongful conviction of Albert Woodfox, who spent 42 years in solitary confinement.