Man convicted of killing Jordan’s father gets new attorney

SANFORD, N.C. — One of the men convicted of killing basketball star Michael Jordan’s father 25 years ago has a new attorney to pursue his claims that he didn’t shoot James Jordan.

WRAL-TV reports attorney Chris Mumma will represent Daniel Green, who appeared Friday in Lee County court to request a new trial and a new attorney.

“When I became familiar with the full facts of the case, I became convinced he is not guilty of the murder of James Jordan, that he was not there when James Jordan was murdered, he was not part of a robbery of James Jordan, all things he was convicted of,” said Mumma, executive director of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence.

Mumma previously had worked with Green’s attorney, Scott Holmes, who voluntarily withdrew from the case.

Green and Larry Demery were convicted of killing James Jordan as he slept in his luxury car in Robeson County in July 1993. His body was found in a South Carolina swamp.

At their 1996 trial, Demery said Green shot Jordan. Green, who has been seeking a new trial for 18 years, has said he helped dispose of Jordan’s body after Demery killed him.

Michael Jordan, who owns the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, is one of the greatest professional basketball players of all time. He led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships. In 1982, his game-winning shot led the North Carolina Tar Heels to the NCAA championship over Georgetown.

Last year, The Associated Press reported that Green’s attorneys filed a motion in Robeson County saying someone had tampered with James Jordan’s shirt after his autopsy.

The autopsy found no hole in James Jordan’s shirt that corresponded with the bullet wound in his upper right chest area, but an agent with the State Bureau of Investigation later contradicted that on the witness stand, according to the 2017 court filing.

A hearing will be held in December to determine whether Green should get an evidentiary hearing, Mumma said.