Follow the Truth: A conversation with Daniel Andre Green in prison

Getting approval to interview someone in prison can be complicated. The inmate has to grant you written permission which you in turn have to share with the North Carolina Department of Public Safety which in turn shares it with the warden, who then sets the day and time. It can be a long process.

Frankly, given the pandemic, I don’t know when I will ever be able to interview someone face-to-face in prison again. My interview with Daniel Andre Green in 2019 might be my last one for a very long time.

When I see Daniel walk into the room – no handcuffs, no shackles, in his prison-issued white T-shirt and tan khakis – he looks like any average man in his forties. He’s gotten a little thicker around the middle over the years, a little grayer around his hairline, and he has a few more wrinkles around his eyes, but he’s still the same Daniel I first met a decade ago. He’s got chiseled features tempered by age and a disarming smile.

I need to get down to business. A clock on the wall is a serious reminder that I only have 90 minutes to speak with him and every second counts. Prison is like this – full of rules that everyone has to follow, including journalists.

Despite his bravado on the phone, in person Daniel is always a little soft-spoken at first, especially for a big, burly guy who looks like he could probably turn over the table between us with one hand if he wanted to. He’s more of a gentle giant. Sometimes, I have to even ask for him to speak up a little or repeat something so I can make sure we get it on tape.

With Daniel, I don’t do a standard interview format, firing questions in sequential order on a timeline. Instead, we chat first, exchange pleasantries. I let him meander a little off on tangents, and then I try to bring him back to center. I do this because Daniel speaks more freely when he is comfortable, and in this scenario, with half dozen large, armed guards sitting at the table behind us, I’m doing the best I can to get him to relax.

For someone in prison, an interview can be cathartic, a break from the isolation and fear they experience every single day on the inside. For me, it’s a story. It’s my job. And I get to leave, to go back to the outside world where I have endless freedom. It always makes me a little forlorn, the leaving, wondering what it would be like if you were a truly innocent person who landed in prison.

Daniel never disappoints, but in this episode of the true crime podcast Follow The Truth, we have the most comprehensive conversation we have ever had. He reveals more about the case, and more about himself than ever before.