After winning exoneration for a falsely-accused murderer in North Carolina and blowing the lid off a pattern of corrupt behaviour at the State Bureau of Investigation, her name is one spoken in hushed tones around prison yards. She’s won every wrongful conviction case she’s ever taken on. 

For Elizabeth Green, more than one life was lost in the summer of 1993. While the Jordan family mourned for their father, she wept for her son, Daniel Andre Green. And when Daniel’s childhood friend–a boy partially raised in their home––testified against him, it was traumatic for the whole family.

As a kid, Daniel Andre Green begged his mom to buy Wheaties so he could collect the Michael Jordan posters tucked away inside each orange “Breakfast of Champions” box. He says, to a young Black guy back then, Michael Jordan was everything. He was status. He was swag. And he was proof you could make it, too. So when Daniel was arrested in 1993 for killing Michael Jordan’s dad, no one was more surprised than him.

It's 1996. Three years after the James Jordan murder, the accused faces a jury – and the media, who come out in a frenzy, cameras loaded, hungry for the next OJ trial phenomenon. As the world learns what law enforcement thinks happened when Michael Jordan’s dad, James drove through rural North Carolina in the middle of the night, all eyes turn to the state’s star witness: Larry Demery, Daniel Green’s co-defendant and childhood best friend, who testifies it was Daniel who fired the shot that ended James Jordan’s life.

Photo Credit: Fayetteville Observer

Nobody in Robeson County, NC was surprised about there being another murder in their neck of the woods. Things like that just seemed to happen there. In a place where armed gunmen took over the local newspaper and a political candidate was murdered on the eve of an election, nothing was out of the question. Often dubbed one of the most dangerous places in America, Robeson County, NC earned its reputation through decades of racial tension and police corruption that still haunt the community today.

Everyone followed the fairytale: The handsome kid, a born athlete, rises to stardom, gets the championships, the money, the shoes. It was a superhero story brought to life – and throughout the meteoric rise, Michael Jordan’s dad, James, was always by his side. Their identities are forever linked: even in death James was often described not by name, but as “Michael Jordan’s dad.” But who was James independent of his son and how would their link haunt his death? 

Photo credit: North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina Library at Chapel Hill

Investigators say they found the killers of Michael Jordan’s dad, now they just need evidence. Like an NBA championship ring buried in the dirt behind a grandmother’s house. A pistol in a shop vac. A music video. All clues that link Daniel Andre Green to the murder of James Jordan – or at least it looks that way.

A nearly unidentifiable body is found in the middle of a South Carolina swamp with a gunshot wound to the chest. For three weeks, no one knows the identity of the John Doe. More than sixty miles away in North Carolina, a stripped and vandalized Lexus sports car turns up in the woods. Then the news that shocks the world. That’s Michael Jordan’s car and the dead man is identified as James R Jordan Sr, Michael Jordan’s dad. Days later, authorities say they have their accomplice--Larry Demery--and their killer: Daniel Andre Green. Problem is, Daniel says he didn’t do it. 

Who really killed Michael Jordan’s father? Follow the Truth is a true crime podcast re-investigating the murder of Michael Jordan’s dad, James R Jordan Sr. The two men convicted, Larry Demery and Daniel Andre Green tell conflicting stories of what happened the night of the James Jordan murder. Daniel Green has served nearly three decades in a North Carolina prison maintaining his innocence in the killing. Veteran crime reporter Amanda Lamb reinvestigates this case full of mystery, contradiction, and dogged by conspiracy theories. The ten-part series from WRAL Studios questions the evidence, scrutinizes the circumstances around the conviction and explores the possibilities of who else may have been responsible for James Jordan’s tragic death.

In 1993, Michael Jordan’s father, James, was murdered. Was the right man convicted of pulling the trigger?