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by Daniel Andre Green
James Jordan, known to the world as the father of Michael Jordan, was murdered on July 23, 1993. He was also the father of James Jordan Jr., Delois Jordan, Larry Jordan, Roslyn Jordan and Ashlee Jordan. He was the husband of Deloris Jordan and shared the same blood as Esther Herring, Linda Jeffers, Robert Hankins and Gene Jordan. He was a Black businessman.
I am Daniel Andre Green. In 1996 I was wrongfully convicted of first-degree felony murder in the death of James Jordan. This is my testimony, a public letter to those who loved James Jordan and a call for help to anyone who believes in truth and reconciliation and who wishes to stand in defense of due process and equal protection of the laws.
It takes good people to raise a person from civil death.
The Robeson County Courthouse is in Lumberton, North Carolina. It sits on Elm Street guarded by one of those confederate soldier statues that has caused so much controversy here in the South.
For those who understand the power of architecture to affect how we view ourselves and our place in society, it is easy to understand why this particular statue stands atop an Egyptian-influenced obelisk where the shadowy remains of a confederate rebel flag can still be seen.
This courthouse, which locals still call “The Nightmare on Elm Street,” is where I stood trial. I was prosecuted by Johnson Britt, pictured here standing in front of the courthouse and confederate statue on the 25th anniversary of James Jordan’s death.
Former Public Defender and Superior Court Judge Gregory Weeks presided at my trial. In an interview recorded by my former Southern Coalition for Social Justice attorney Ian Mance, Weeks disparagingly described his experience holding court in Robeson County:
“Robeson County was a revelation … (T)here’s an air of oppression … (W)hen you cross that county line, make sure you got your warp suit on because you’re going into a different dimension … I contacted the state bar – a lawyer’s guild – last year … I had seen enough in the system that I didn’t even want to be a lawyer any more … (I)t’s supposed to be the justice system … (T)he more information I’m exposed to, the more depressed I become in all candor … (I)f there’s a way to correct an injustice, I’m certainly anxious to do that.”
“It’s a tragedy … I mean … (pause) God have mercy on us,” Weeks, who quit law in North Carolina and moved to work in Washington, D.C., told my lawyer.
The prosecutor, Johnson Britt III
Johnson Britt has done multiple interviews bragging about the access to Michael Jordan that his role as prosecutor provided him. To him this case is the biggest prey he’s ever bagged because of Michael Jordan’s celebrity.
To deflect attention from the only issues relevant at this stage of the case, Johnson Britt has been forced to rely on ad hominem attacks against my character. The evidence and the law are on my side and are indisputable and unassailable, so he has to use racial stereotypes and my character flaws as an 18-year-old to make you think I don’t deserve the protection of the law. For want of a knife, even a dull blade will suffice.
He has repeatedly characterized me as a liar who has an aversion to truth. He is often quoted in the press as saying I am a bad person because of a prior conviction that was clearly self-defense and the court reversed.
Simply put, as someone in prison at 16 years old for a conviction that I knew was wrong – the same one Britt himself later dismissed after Judge Weeks overturned it – I couldn’t accept being treated like the slave I legally was by racist hillbilly officers who felt that it was their manifest destiny to break “young uppity niggers” like me.
Britt himself, having the option to re-try me, chose to dismiss rather than take the case back to trial and let the public see just how corrupted and indifferent to the law Robeson County justice system was, and still is, when it comes to poor minority defendants and victims.
When Johnson Britt is confronted with the weakness in the conviction, he resorts to using my prison disciplinary record after my conviction. Simply put, as someone in prison at 16 years old for a conviction that I knew was wrong – the same one Britt himself later dismissed after Judge Weeks overturned it – I couldn’t accept being treated like the slave I legally was by racist hillbilly officers who felt that it was their manifest destiny to break “young uppity niggers” like me.
After I was convicted of James Jordan’s murder, my insistence on maintaining my innocence and working to try to prove it in the courts by learning the law put me on the officer hit list. Any officer who writes me up is rewarded, gets undeserved promotions, gets a free pass when they are caught breaking criminal laws themselves.
A prisoner in North Carolina who ships into a prison with as many lawbooks as I have, who assists and teaches others how to assert their legal rights in court, is characterized as a serpent in the garden. This is not new:
“Whereas the teaching of slaves to read and write has a tendency to excite dissatisfaction in their minds and to produce insurrection and rebellion to the manifest injury of the citizens of the state; therefore, be it enacted by the General Assembly of this state of North Carolina and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same … that if any slave shall hereafter teach or attempt to teach any other slave to read or write … he or she may be carried before a justice of the peace and on conviction thereof shall be sentenced to receive 39 lashes on his bare back.” – Legislative Papers 1830-31 Session of North Carolina General Assembly
Yes. I’ve earned 39 lashes …
Contact Johnson Britt and ask him to send you the complete record, including the statement by staff and witnesses of every write-up I have. He won’t.
If he did, it would publicize the blatant disregard for their own policy, criminal law and basic human decency prison officials employ to find me and other prisoners guilty of write-ups even when video evidence proves our innocence.
It would expose how Johnson Britt has resorted to distorting the truth, to intentionally lying in his former capacity as district attorney and in his status as an officer of North Carolina courts and a member of North Carolina State Bar. Johnson Britt calling me a liar is the pot calling the kettle black.
While he points the finger at me, three of his own fingers point back at him because not only is he a liar, he has lied under oath on me. He has deceived the court and Michael Jordan.
The Jordan family deserves to know that this man who brags about being their white knight in shining armor has no better character and morals than I had at 18 years old.
In fact, he has less because I have never lied under oath. I have never been the kind of person who would lie to put an innocent man in the gas chamber, to suppress fabricated evidence to keep a human being hostage. What am I talking about?
Briefly …
In 2007, Johnson Britt, North Carolina State Bar No. 1461, stated under oath that “the evidence presented at Mr. Green’s trial in 1996 included a statement by Mr. Green in which he admitted to his participation in the robbery and shooting death of James Jordan who, in the same affidavit, he described as ‘the father of former University of North Carolina basketball star (and the National Basketball Association star) Michael Jordan.’”
This is not only a lie, it’s perjury – because Britt lied under oath about a material matter.
This affidavit is on file in Mecklenburg County, Charlotte, North Carolina, Case No. 07-CVS-4713, Daniel A. Green v. Robert Tufano; Channel 3 WBTV and Jefferson Pilot Communications Co.
I have asked Britt to produce the statement he referred to. He cannot. It never existed. But the Jordan family, who were not present at my trial, would not know he lied.
Perjury is a crime. The attorney general of North Carolina, Josh Stein, can charge him. Please ask him to do so.
Josh’s father, Adam Stein, and Jim Ferguson, founders of the first Black and Jewish law firm in North Carolina, were almost killed defending civil rights.
Johnson Britt crafted a false stipulation and entered it into evidence at my trial. He claimed that on Dec. 27, 1995, Michael Jordan met with him in Chicago, Illinois, and he showed Michael Jordan a photograph of me wearing, among other things, a 1990-91 replica NBA championship ring given to James Jordan and Michael Jordan identified the ring on my left hand. A lie.
Michael Jordan has no reason to lie on me and didn’t. Johnson Britt, though, did lie on me on an official court document – another crime and ethical violation he committed to sensationalize the trial.
While I couldn’t be blamed for not knowing the car and items in it belonged to Michael Jordan or his dad, if I had a gold, diamond encrusted championship ring which I never saw, it would be more believable that I jacked someone for it because it looked valuable.
By contrast, the all-star ring and the Chicago Bulls watch, which I found three days after I first got into the car, was thought by me to be knock-off replicas.
A teacher, a sergeant in the U.S. Army and others also thought it was fake. Definitely not something anyone would see and kill someone in cold blood for.
I put the ring and watch on and flashed them in a rap video because of the appeal associated with the Jordan brand. There was nothing insidious about it. Yet, the prosecutor knew that associating me with something as blingy as a championship ring played into the perception of young Black thugs possessed by gold lust.
Johnson Britt also helped deceive the Jordan family and the jury into believing James Jordan’s blood was found in the car, where they claimed he was shot during a carjacking. Without any blood in the car, not even a speck, who would believe he was shot at close range with a big gun while sleeping in a car?
One of the trial jurors provided an affidavit swearing that the jury was persuaded by the expert testimony of blood being found in the car. It was a lie.
Britt knew it was a lie because three days before our arrest, Art Binder, lead detective on the case, held a press conference and told CBS Evening News with Connie Chung that they specifically tested the car interior for blood and the result was negative.
This happened before my arrest, so apparently my lawyers didn’t know about the negative result, but it caused conflict because I was the only one saying there was no blood in the car that I saw. North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) lab expert Jennifer Elwell claimed she found blood, which she has now acknowledged was untrue.
Larry Demery, my co-defendant, after finding out that the SBI claimed to have found blood in the car, changed his lies to say he actually wiped blood off the car seats hours after the murder and missed some spots.
The questions the Jordan family may want to consider are:
- Why did investigators hide the original negative luminal blood test results?
- Why did the SBI lie under oath to create the impression that they found blood?
- Why did the police and Britt help Larry Demery, the teenager who killed James Jordan while I was miles away, make up his final version of the murder that had me killing James Jordan in the car to corroborate the fake blood evidence?
See, the million-dollar question, if not several millions of dollars, is why did Johnson Britt, Art Binder and Jennifer Elwell run game to convince the Jordan family that they found and had a sample of James Jordan’s blood in the car, his DNA – and then destroy this imaginary blood sample secretly and unlawfully?
This is critical because that fake blood sample was used to overcome the jury’s distrust of Demery’s testimony against me. It bolstered his obviously self-serving and unbelievable testimony with so-called scientific evidence.
A house negro would rather put a rope around my neck than to have his role models think he’s for his people like they are for theirs.
You know how we have all been conditioned to find science experts – hell, any experts. Science has become our new priest. This is to our peril. The National Academy of Science proved that Britt’s “science” was a scam.
I could go on and on about Johnson Britt. I could refer you to page 3,297 of my trial transcript where Johnson Britt’s cousin, Jack Inman, who helped a juror sabotage my trial by lying to get a Black female kicked off my jury, told the juror who helped him that he “hoped that she or they or whoever would convict the nigger.”
This sentiment was echoed in allegations by an impartial citizen who convincingly said she heard a juror saying she was going to “find the nigger guilty” and “that nigger deserves to die.” It’s in my trial transcript, pages 2,481 and 2,654, respectively.
I could quote him telling the court on page 7,229, “I don’t care what the rules are at this juncture.”
A district attorney’s worth should be determined by how successful he or she is in using the office to bring justice, based on truth, to the people – not by how many wins they get under their belts.
It’s easy enough to convict African Americans in areas like Robeson County that are so racist that Indian and white women who date Black men are disowned by their families, where Black people are often compelled to act like overseers and house negroes to get ahead.
A house negro would rather put a rope around my neck than to have his role models think he’s for his people like they are for theirs. That is why Robeson County is described by its own health director as the most impoverished, the most uneducated, the most diseased, the worst parenting county in the state of North Carolina.
A state that Mark Nance and Jim Zink, associate professors of political science in North Carolina State University’s School of Public and International Affairs, have said contains “something rotten,” where “widespread corruption is undermining the legitimacy of state government.”
It’s easy for a prosecutor to win a case when, as in this case, the media operated as his personal propaganda machine by repeatedly broadcasting a rap video I did and falsely claiming I was rapping about killing James Jordan.
A lie they all knew was a lie because the lyrics contained no reference to James Jordan nor Michael Jordan. It was basic freestyle battle rap lyrics, partly in response to Cypress Hill’s song, “I can just kill a man.”
Johnson Britt may not have the best ear when it comes to hip hop, but he and every officer, newscaster and commentator who comprehends English knew that contrary to their representations – the lyrics were just a kid doing what rappers do using metaphors, stagecraft and bravado.
“I don’t care what the rules are at this juncture.”
The Jordan family knows how the media is used to spread propaganda for entertainment and how journalists and authors who do know and possess the truth sell it to the highest bidder to secrete it away in a blackmail file.
I have nothing to hide from the Jordan family, nor from a court where my rights to protect the integrity of my case is guaranteed. But people like Britt make Trojan horses necessary.
“Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed” – John 3:20
The Trojan horse pious fraud
Johnson Britt is right when he says that I have lied about this case. Having no faith in the motives and ability of officers to protect me and the search for truth about James Jordan, I was compelled to protect the truth with a bodyguard of lies, to use various pia fraus – pious fraud, the end justifying the means – as would anyone in my situation.
I am not an 18-year-old kid now.
I am no longer under the false impression that any man has power over us. We are not the body. We are the jewel within the lotus, the drop of eternity in the eternal ocean, the G uniting the compass of heaven and spirit and the square of earth and matter.
Since we live, move and have our being in God, what can we fear? Reflections of our lower self? Nah, we are forever becoming that which we be.
This is the foundation of truth and reconciliation. It is a process wherein we become the center of union. In doing so, the center of our being, which is universal, becomes conciliatory and is drawn to itself and pulls us all into the most harmonious positions with each other as gravity harmonizes and preserves order.
Gravity in the physical is what love is in the mental and spiritual states of being.
The legal system can’t accomplish true justice because the actions and reactions of too many in it are ruled by fear – the fear of losing, the fear of exposure, the fear of being cast into prison, the fear of losing a once in a lifetime opportunity to advance their career and finances.
My attorney, Christine Mumma, commented on this at the Dec. 5, 2018, hearing to determine whether Judge Winston Gilchrist would honor the decisions of previous judges, who he replaced, to allow us to present evidence of innocence and violations that rendered my trial unconstitutional and even unlawful:
“The outcome of this case is partly driven by fear: fear by witnesses, fear by attorneys, fear of law enforcement, fear of judging by the community, fear of being associated in any way with the case that caused pain to Michael Jordan. Because of that fear, the truth has never been heard in this case and there can be no justice without truth.”
How does one fight fear and fear mongers? With light.
My appeal for help
On March 6, 2019, Judge Winston Gilchrist apparently had his trial court administrator notify my lawyers and the North Carolina attorney general’s office, the lawyers representing the state, that he was denying the motion for a new trial and our motion to present evidence in open court.
He also asked Attorney General Joshua Stein to send him a document explaining the rationale behind his denial.
No, you didn’t read that wrong. The judge basically said: “I’m denying the motion. State of North Carolina tell me why I denied it.” That was seven months ago. He still has not signed the order nor has he told us why he ruled against us.
Now, seven months later, Judge Winston Gilchrist and Johnson Britt have been elevated to positions at North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, a tribunal my lawyer, Christine Mumma, helped establish.
I know the way to obtain my case files – I’ve obtained the files of dozens of inmates on their behalf – yet, my lawyers refused to send me my file and North Carolina State Bar refused to direct the lawyers to send me my files. Why?
Ironically, Johnson Britt, the district attorney who broke the criminal law and ethical rules of North Carolina State Bar in my case, now represents defendants at the same commission, the first of its kind in America.
If my lawyer were to go after Johnson Britt by formally filing charges against him, he could block every other case she has to take in front of the commission. For many of her clients, the commission is their only chance of getting out.
Christine Mumma has publicly labeled Britt a liar, but to file formal charges against him and others who have rigged every stage of my case would result in her being blackballed.
For that reason, I need your help. I need someone not bound into the North Carolina system of justice in a way that makes them vulnerable to retaliation.
What is needed
I am told that the Jordan family, specifically Michael Jordan, is the only reason the courts are denying me due process and equal protection under the law. At times, I was so convinced of this, based on what I was told, that I spent precious time researching it.
Yet, when I started thinking for myself, I realized that there is no evidence the Jordan family has played any role in the outcome of my case, and when I have asked people to back up their assertions, they never have.
That type of speculative thinking is why I lost my freedom. We have to be careful about jumping to conclusions and passing judgment based on unsubstantiated rumors.
I’ve done it myself, trying to figure out how I’ve spent 26 years of my life in prison and people who have killed people on camera haven’t even done a day in custody.
If the Jordan family actually believes I’m guilty, it’s not because they are gullible enough to believe the state is infallible, that the only person who testified against me was credible, or that I’m guilty because I was joyriding in James Jordan’s car and couldn’t resist wearing items with MJ’s brand on them.
Even my trial jury had to put the All Star ring on for the same reason people stand in line all night to buy a pair of Jordans.
If the Jordan family truly believes I robbed and killed James Jordan, it’s because someone they trust told them that someone I trust told them I confessed to them. Or someone convinced the Jordan family that the evidence proving this lie is authentic.
I have been trying to obtain all my files since my conviction in 1996. I know the way to obtain my case files – I’ve obtained the files of dozens of inmates on their behalf – yet, my lawyers refused to send me my file and North Carolina State Bar refused to direct the lawyers to send me my files. Why?
On Sept. 26, 2011, my former lawyer, C. Scott Holmes, North Carolina Central University law professor and famed civil rights lawyer, wrote me saying, “I am suspicious about the way the evidence has been handled, misplaced and destroyed in your case.”
I have seen indisputable evidence that documents have been fabricated and placed in my case file.
So, what I am absolutely certain of is this: that people have fabricated evidence in my case to use as leverage against Michael Jordan, to manipulate the Jordan family – and they’ve done it to blackmail their way into a better life for themselves at the expense of my freedom, my family’s well-being and the Jordan family’s right to know the truth and their overall well-being.
My mother and great-grandmother didn’t raise a coward. I have nothing to hide – not from anyone who genuinely respects truth.
For the above reasons, I am willing to waive attorney-client privilege to every document in my case file and in the possession of my lawyers and in the possession of the North Carolina Administrative Office of Courts. I also request and challenge the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office to do the same.
Out of respect and deference to the family of James Jordan – not because of his status, but because of their loss, they deserve to review these files first. All I ask in return is the opportunity to review, explain and rebut any evidence that appears to be inculpatory.
No help is too small and, of course, I ask for all prayers and kind thoughts for all people involved in this process whether they are helping me or trying to hurt me – and especially for the Jordan family and mine.
My purpose is to do what any person genuinely interested in the truth does in “he said, she said” situations – get all the parties in the same room and see where the B.S. is coming from.
If this happens, I am certain the Jordan family will see that I am innocent of the charges that I was convicted of and subsequent actions will make sense, although some were stupid, rash and unjustifiable.
In addition, I am also willing to give unfettered access of these files to any organization, here and abroad, to any university, individual or group interested in using these files to advance comprehension of the following:
The role of local and natural news media as instruments of propaganda resulting in wrongful convictions
I believe the news media has an ethical responsibility to abstain from airing the police versions of crimes until they obtain and concurrently air the accused version.
In a 2011 recorded interview, my trial lawyer, Angus Thompson, boasted of telling Oprah Winfrey to “kiss his ass” when she asked to interview him about the case.
Somehow, she got the wrong impression and told Michael Jordan on her show that she asked me questions and I refused to answer and explain why I killed James Jordan.
I was shocked, because I never knew she reached out to my lawyer and I would’ve welcomed the chance to say I didn’t kill James Jordan, played no role in his robbery or death and to ask why she assumed I was guilty.
The way certain cases are given a high profile by the media to advance the political and financial interests of their shareholders
As CNN and Fox News coverage of Donald Trump have proven, most media are biased and selectively present news that is often inaccurate.
My case was used to spearhead the push for longer sentences and harsher prison conditions in North Carolina because I had recently been released from prison.
Yet, the media never gave equal coverage to the fact that my prior conviction was overturned and the charges dismissed by the D.A., nor to the fact that Larry Demery, the real killer, wouldn’t have been free to kill James Jordan if the police had served the outstanding warrant they had on him, even though they easily could have.
James Jordan’s death couldn’t have been prevented by longer sentences for prisoners because I didn’t kill him. It could’ve been prevented by the police not showing favoritism to Larry Demery because he and they were part of the same narcotrafficking network.
Editor’s note: According to the Chicago Tribune, “Green’s defense team hopes to present new evidence that they contend will show … that there were failures by the prosecution to properly disclose information that would have connected the sheriff’s drug-trafficking biological son to the investigation.” (See https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/bears/ct-spt-james-jordan-murder-daniel-green-20180722-story.html).
Yet, because the prison complex is so profitable, my case was used as a commercial for more prisons by North Carolina lawmakers and their lobbyists, due to the public’s emotional identification with Michael Jordan.
The outcome is devastating our state even now.
The impact of publicity on defense lawyers’ and prosecutors’ strategy
How likely is it that officers of the court will serve the best interest of their client when assertive advocacy would publicly ruin their peers in law enforcement and when it would bite the hand that feeds them?
What motivation does a D.A. have to bring truth to light when suppressing and distorting the truth gives them leverage to blackmail their way into higher office?
What incentive do court appointed lawyers have to exonerate clients quickly when they can use a case as a fishing net to gather their own blackmail material to trade in for their own advancement and to trade in to free clients with less opposition from the powers that be?
How does the court treat clients who are forced to take control of their case because their lawyer refuses to fight for them out of fear of having their own dirt exposed or because their lawyers are clearly sacrificing them?
For psychologists: How do lawyers choose to believe clients with toxic cases are deserving of abandonment because of their natural desire to avoid the pain and suffering of representing unpopular clients and clients with powerful foes?
For sociologists, lawyers and psychologists: Why do victims’ families seek catharsis by trusting law enforcement, the justice system and others who, under different circumstances, they would never trust?
In my case, Art Binder, one of the lead detectives, bragged in a recorded interview with my lawyer, Ian Mance, that he was Michael Jordan’s shoulder to lean on before, during and after the funeral.
Yet, he is a known racist and he fabricated blood evidence in this case. Who in the justice system can be trusted to secure the victims’ interest solely?
I welcome all serious proposals and any help at all would be appreciated deeply. No help is too small and, of course, I ask for all prayers and kind thoughts for all people involved in this process whether they are helping me or trying to hurt me – and especially for the Jordan family and mine.
Please contact me directly, via mail, at this address with any helpful information: Daniel Andre Green, 0154242, 4600 Swamp Fox Hwy W, Tabor City, NC 28463. Someone out there has information about James Jordan’s murder that can free me and solve this case.
This is my effort to crowdsource, bringing truth to this process.
Please include a phone number and mailing address. I have no access to the internet.
One Love Universal!
Update
The story above was sent to the Bay View in the fall of 2019 and has since been uncovered. Because of our limited capacity, this is often the case with the many powerful stories we receive on a daily basis.
In preparing for publication of this story, we learned that Daniel Green’s co-defendant, Larry Demery, who is not Black, will be up for parole in 2023. An August 2020 Washington Post story by Cindy Boren revealed:
“One of two men convicted of the 1993 murder of Michael Jordan’s father will be released in three years, North Carolina officials said Tuesday.
“Larry Demery was sentenced to life in prison in 1996, convicted along with Daniel Green of shooting James Jordan to death as he napped in his car alongside a road in North Carolina. Demery pleaded guilty in 1995 to first-degree murder and other charges and testified against Green, who has denied involvement and continues to seek release from prison … Convicts serving life sentences for murder in the state are not eligible for parole unless their crimes were committed before Oct. 1, 1994; Jordan was killed July 23, 1993.” (See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/08/19/larry-demery-james-jordan-murder-michael-jordan/).
We have yet to find information regarding a parole date for Black co-defendant Daniel Andre Green.
Related articles
Chicago Tribune, “The James Jordan Murder”: https://graphics.chicagotribune.com/james-jordan-murder/index.html
New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/article/james-jordan-death.html, https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/14/sports/man-shot-to-death-is-identified-as-father-of-jordan.html, https://www.google.com/search?q=New+york+times+james+jordna+murder&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS912US912&oq=New+york+times+james+jordna+murder&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i64.12720j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
North Carolina on Actual Innocence, NCCAI.org – Daniel Green: https://www.nccai.org/?s=Daniel+Green
The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/12/06/hes-prison-murdering-michael-jordans-father-new-evidence-could-change-everything/
Raleigh News & Observer: https://www.newsobserver.com/search/?q=James+Jordan+murder
Charlotte Observer: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/search/?q=James+Jordan+murder
Send our brother some love and light: Daniel Andre Green, 0154242, 4600 Swamp Fox Hwy W, Tabor City, NC 28463.
