Man convicted of James Jordan's murder finds hope in appeal for new hearing

Daniel Green, convicted in 1996 of the 1993 shooting death of James Jordan, father of basketball star Michael Jordan, believes his latest appeal, filed Friday, gives him a chance at a new trial.

"I’m hopeful about the appeal," he told WRAL News in a phone interview." I hope the court will listen and follow the established legal precedent.”

His attorney, Chris Mumma, executive director of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, has a long record of helping the wrongly convicted.

"I’ve been diagnosed as pathologically hopeful," she said, "and I would say in Daniel’s case that would be an accurate diagnosis for me to be hopeful at this point."

She also cites 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.

Mumma also questions several pieces of evidence including testimony involving the shirt that James Jordan was wearing. The coroner found no bullet hole at the time of the autopsy that corresponded with the wound in Jordan’s chest, but years later at trial there was a bullet hole in the shirt. There was also no scientific evidence of blood being found in James Jordan‘s car, yet an SBI agent testified that in her opinion there was blood. Additionally, Mumma hired a ballistics expert who concluded, based on the trajectory of the bullet, that the shooting could not have happened as described by Demery.

"I truly believe he has been denied justice since the day he was arrested," Mumma said.

It could take several months for the court to rule on the appeal.