Appeals court rules in favor of Daniel Green keeping hope for retrial alive

The North Carolina Court of Appeals Court on Tuesday upheld a request from attorneys for the man serving a life sentence for the murder of Michael Jordan's father that his case be reconsidered.

The order marks the first time that any court has offered Green a possibility of a retrial, and no one is more excited on Green's behalf than his attorney, Christine Mumma.

"I was pretty emotional for Daniel because it's been so long since he was arrested that anything positive has happened for him and for his family," she said.

"You get to the point where you're not expecting anything positive in this case, you're not expecting things to go the way they should."

In 2020, a judge ruled that Green did not deserve another day in court to have new evidence heard in the case. Now the North Carolina Court of Appeals has vacated that ruling and kicked it back to the same judge for re-consideration. The appeals court is asking that judge to reconsider all of the evidence presented by Green's attorneys, specifically, their claims about ineffective counsel at trial.

In asking for the retrial, Mumma cited errors by judges and Green's defense attorneys that she thinks warrant further consideration, including a witness who says she saw Green at a party at the time of the murder.