Department Of Correction Frees Malcolm X's Killer

The convicted killer of civil rights leader Malcolm X was granted parole this morning, a day before his schedule release date.

Department of Correction officials said they released Thomas Hagan, 69, from the Lincoln Correctional Facility on 110th Street at 11 a.m., after he had completed his scheduled hours for the week.

Hagan was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison in 1966 on a first-degree murder charge for shooting Malcolm X at Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom a year earlier.

He was on work release for the last 20 years, spending two days a week at the correctional facility and the rest of the week working and living with his family, and was denied parole 16 times.

When Ilyasah Shabazz, one of Malcolm X's daughters, learned last month that Hagan was freed, she told NY1 that she was ready to forgive him.

Two other gunmen were convicted in connection with the shooting, but they were released in the 1980s.