Malcolm X’s Daughter Pleads Not Guilty to Plotting Murder
Qubilah Bahiyah Shabazz, the daughter of slain black leader Malcolm X, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of attempting to hire a hit man to murder Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Wearing a black shawl over her cornrow braids, Shabazz, 34, appeared somber and spoke softly in entering her plea before federal magistrate Judge Franklin L. Noel, who set a trial date of March 27. If convicted, she could face up to 90 years in prison and $2.25 million in fines.
Joining the local public defender’s office on Shabazz’s defense team were William M. Kunstler, the flamboyant, left-wing civil rights lawyer who once represented Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and former Manhattan borough president Percy Sutton, a longtime friend of Malcolm X’s family.
The man allegedly approached about the murder is Michael Kevin Fitzpatrick, her former high school classmate in New York.
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