Thomas Hagan, the only man who admitted to having a role in Malcolm X's assassination in 1965, was released yesterday morning from Lincoln Correctional Facility in East Harlem. Hagan had been denied parole 16 times since he became eligible in 1980, but has been on work release since 1989. He admitted to shooting at the civil rights leader after another man already took a shot, and recently told the parole board, "My thoughts are that it never should have happened, number one, that I have a lot of regret about my actions and participating in that." He will presumably return to his family's home in Sunset Park; Malcolm X is still dead. more ›

A prison term of 20 years to life will end for the man who shot Malcom X at Manhattan’s Audobun Ballroom in 1965. Thomas Hagan, who’s applied for parole 16 times, had his request granted yesterday. He's already been on a work-release program and spends only two days/week in jail, but on April 28, the 69-year-old will walk free. One of the slain civil rights icon’s daughters, Illyasah Shabazz,spoke last night at the scene of his death and said she was ready to forgive Hagan, a former militant member of the Nation of Islam: "I would really think that at this point in his life he's regretful for having been a pawn, one of the pawns in killing my father." Two other men who were implicated in the killing, but didn't confess, were released twenty years ago. more ›

Thomas Hagan is appealing the most recent denial of his parole for the 1965 murder of Malcolm X, who was gunned down in front of his family at Washington Height's Audubon Ballroom. The September 2007 denial for parole means that Hagan's next opportunity nine months from now will be his 14th. Hagan has been imprisoned for 43 years since he pleaded guilty to killing the controversial community leader. more ›