"The analogy is that if your mother or father had been murdered," Mr. Tilsen said, "and somebody came to you and enticed, cajoled you into discussing what happened, you'd listen, and it could be made to appear that you were in a conspiracy."

The assassination of Malcolm X has long been the subject of fiery debate and conspiracy theories involving the Nation of Islam, the police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Three men, all Nation of Islam members, were charged and convicted in the killing, but only one, Talmadge X Hayer, also known as Thomas Hagan, was caught at the scene. Unlike the others, Mr. Hayer, who had been shot by one of Malcolm X's bodyguards, was unable to flee.

Mr. Hayer soon admitted to his part in the killing, but insisted that the other accused men, Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson, both members of a Harlem mosque, were not his accomplices. Benjamin Goodman, who had introduced Malcolm X at the ballroom, said he had not seen either Mr. Butler or Mr. Johnson at the event.

In 1977, Mr. Hayer named three other men, Nation of Islam members from New Jersey, as his accomplices. The lawyer William M. Kunstler, representing Mr. Butler and Mr. Johnson, obtained F.B.I. files, quoting informers who were at the Audubon Ballroom, as saying that at least one of the assassins was a member of a Newark mosque.

Mr. Kunstler, who had at one time been Malcolm X's lawyer, tried to have his clients granted a new trial, but failed. Both men have since been released from prison.

Mr. Kunstler and some Black Muslims have said that Malcolm X may have been killed by the police, the F.B.I. or both. They note that Malcolm X was under surveillance by the bureau, and that the F.B.I. tried to foster a feud between him and other members of the Nation of Islam years before they parted ways.