It’s been 28 years since Michael Jordan’s father, James Jordan, was brutally murdered. And for those same 28 years, Daniel Green has maintained that he wasn’t the one to fire the lone bullet into Jordan’s chest that fateful night in 1993. He’s admitted to helping codefendant Larry Demery dispose of the body but insists he was not there when Jordan was killed. Green has tried on numerous occasions to get a new trial, all of which have been denied, but he’s refusing to give up and has filed his latest appeal in an attempt to get another day in court.

Daniel Green has maintained that he was not present when Michael Jordan’s father, James Jordan, was murdered in 1993

Ever since being arrested for the murder of Jordan on August 15, 1993, Green has maintained that he was not the one to kill him, claiming he was at a party at the time Jordan was killed. As mentioned, he does admit to helping Demery dump the body in a swamp just beyond the North Carolina-South Carolina border.

However, Demery, who pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Green as part of his plea deal, said Green was indeed the triggerman. Green himself never actually took the stand, and a jury obviously didn’t believe the multiple witnesses who put Green at the party at the time Jordan was killed. Demery’s testimony effectively sealed Green’s fate, and both were sentenced to life in prison.

Green has filed his latest appeal in an attempt to get a new trial

Over the last 20-plus years, Green has attempted to get back in a courtroom to plead his case and has obviously failed each time. Last January, his efforts were once again blocked as a Superior Court judge in Lumberton, North Carolina, denied his Motion for Appropriate Relief.

This past week, Green’s attorney, Chris Mumma, who serves as the Executive Director of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, filed an appeal with the Court of Appeals of North Carolina, saying the judge made an error in the aforementioned 2020 denial by not holding a hearing in which new evidence could have been presented.

Among the new evidence Mumma is looking to add to the case is her claim that Demery told her in a face-to-face meeting that Green was not the one to kill Jordan, and she’s provided an affidavit detailing that conversation. She’s also brought into question the shirt Jordan was wearing the night he was killed.

When the autopsy was performed, she says the coroner found no bullet hole in the shirt consistent with the wound found in Jordan’s chest. However, during the trial, there was a bullet hole in the shirt. Mumma also claims she hired a ballistics expert who concluded the shooting could not have gone down the way Demery described based on the bullet’s trajectory. She says Green’s counsel at the time inadequately presented evidence during the trial, a trial she calls “unjust.”

Larry Demery is set to be paroled in 2024

As for Demery, he was granted parole last August and was set to be released in the year 2023. However, as recently reported by WPDE ABC 15, the North Carolina Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission changed his release date to 2024 this past June. He’s said to have very few infractions on his record since his incarceration began.