National Basketball Association

Report: Lawyers claim police misconduct in slaying of Michael Jordan's father

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 9:04 p.m. ET

Sports Illustrated, SI Wire/Sports Illustrated

Lawyers for one of two men who were convicted in the 1993 killing of Michael Jordan's father in North Carolina believe they have found more evidence of police misconduct in the incident, according to documents examined by the Charlotte News and Observer.

James Jordan's cell phone records show that a call was made to a drug dealer, who was also the son of a sheriff, after the shooting took place on the side of U.S. 74 near Lumberton, North Carolina. Jordan was sleeping in his car when he was shot by Daniel Andre Green and Larry Demery.

Green has continually said that he did not shoot Jordan. He was found guilty along with Demery for the crime and sentenced to life imprisonment. His trial attorneys acknowledged that Green helped dispose of the body, which was found in a swamp weeks after the shooting.

Green’s defense team tried to introduce evidence of the call to the drug dealer before a jury in 1996 but the judge rejected the request. The lawyers for Green believe that Sheriff Hubert Stone did not want his son Hubert Larry Deese involved in the case and steered the investigation as a carjacking.

“If the jury had known that the sheriff’s office had a strong motive to conceal evidence of a drug motive, for which there already was some evidence in the record,” Green’s defense team said in new court documents. “They would have been less likely to conclude that the murder transpired in the course of a carjacking.”

Demery acknowledges the incident as a carjacking gone wrong. Demery has testified against Green as part of a plea deal. Demery was eligible for parole in 2016 but remains imprisoned.

Green's defense team believes the misconduct claims are backed by a 1997 drug probe but will await more evidence before bringing their case before a judge.