Judge wants man he sentenced for Michael Jordan’s father’s murder released
Daniel Green, a man currently serving a life sentence for the 1993 murder of James Jordan, Michael Jordan’s father, may be released from prison after the sentencing judge admitted he was wrong and that he was troubled for years by his ruling.
According to a report from ABC News, Gregory Weeks, the North Carolina judge who presided over the 1996 murder trial, recently submitted an affidavit petitioning for Green’s release.
He wrote in the document that a forensic blood analyst investigating the case against Green did not disclose the fact that several forensic tests run from inside the vehicle where James Jordan was murdered came back negative or inconclusive for blood.
This fact was imperative to the case, as a large part of the prosecutors’ argument against Green was that his blood was found in the vehicle. It’s now understood, however, that the substance may not have been his blood at all.
In light of the discovery, Weeks advocates for Green to be paroled.
Green and his co-defendant, Larry Demery, were convicted of killing the basketball legend’s father on July 23, 1993, during a botched robbery.
Both were 18 years old at the time of the murder. Demery claimed Green shot and killed James Jorden but Green, now 46, tells a different story.
He said Demery murdered James Jordan. He then showed up at midnight asking Green to help dispose of James Jordan’s body. Green agreed to do it.
In 1993, James Jordan was sleeping in his red Lexus along a North Carolina highway when he was shot. The car was gifted to him by his son, who at the time had led the Chicago Bulls to the first three of his six NBA titles.
His body was found in a South Carolina swamp days after the killing and was identified through dental records, according to the Associated Press.
Green was found guilty of murder during the commission of a robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery.
Demery testified that Green pulled the trigger and killed James Jordan. Demery pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, armed robbery, and conspiracy to commit robbery, and like Green, received a life sentence.
Green has always said he did not kill James Jordan but admitted to helping dispose of the body. He is now 46 and he regrets what he did.
Judge Weeks told the [state’s parole] commission that the omission of these test results — evidence that could have changed the trial outcome — has haunted him for nearly three decades, according to several criminal justice advocates who were at the proceeding.