While returning from a funeral eight days before his 57th birthday,James Jordan,Michael Jordan's father,pulled into a rest stop on Interstate 95 to take a nap.Daniel Green and Larry Martin Demery shot Jordan to death while he slept in his car and proceeded to steal the vehicle.
Here's part of a good article written by bellamami(member of PTO)bout the situation...
On August 5th, 1993 a stripped Lexus registered to Michael Jordan was found by a state trooper in the outskirts of Fayetteville, N.C.
When the officer contacted the security firm representing the Jordan family he was told "…find the body and keep it quiet." The next day a body, found in McColl, S.C. on August the Third and subsequentlycremated, was identified as being the remains of James Jordan,husband and father of seven children including basketball icon,Michael Jordan.
There was no way this shocking misfortune could be kept quiet.
When it was discovered that the elder Jordan had been murdered the news media impiously attributed his death to the gambling debts of his son. The media even went as far as to suggest that Jordan wasthe victim of a mob hit in retribution for Michael Jordan throwing games. This was a ridiculous conclusion to draw for anyone who had ever seen MJ play with a passion and competitive nature unmatched by anyone in his era of that game. No one left it all on the court like "Money Mike", the progenitor of the going-all-out, ball `til you fall philosophy that has transcended the game and is now so prevalent in the Hip Hop generation.
Yet, in true vulturine fashion, the same industry that made millions from this one man's skill and mass appeal couldn't resist the opportunity to capitalize off of the Jordan'stragedy by laying the blame at Michael's feet.
When un-cashed checks were found in the office of a murdered bail bondsman earlier, the media tried to hold Jordan responsible,portraying him as a man so domineering and competitive that it was not beyond the realm of possibility that he could be involved to avoid paying a debt that was peanuts to him. When the investigation exonerated him you could almost hear a sigh of disappointment from the media. "What a story that would've been" seemed to be the popular consensus of the media.
When the news media realized that they could not substantiate the rumors they had generated linking Jordan's murder to his son's lifestyle they redirected their focus to sensationalizing the arrestof two North Carolina teenagers.
On the night of August the 14th, authorities from the Robeson CountySheriff's Department, the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation and the F.B.I. surrounded the residence of Daniel Andre' Green, and 18 year old African – American teenager who had been recently paroled from N.C.'s Department of Corrections after serving a few months shy of the maximum of a six year sentence for assault with a deadly weapon with the intent to kill.
This conviction, a miscarriage of justice was later vacated and overturned in Robeson County Supreme Court on the basis that all the evidence proved that it was an accident in self-defense and that Green's lawyer, was ineffective in representing him and other clients. This lawyer, Frieda Black, an Assistant Public Defender had accepted a position with the District Attorney's office in Durham, N.C. and in a rush to clear her calendar had neglected her clients.
The fault was not hers alone. It was revealed that the Public Defender's office did not have the resources to adequately defend criminal defendants, practically guaranteeing them 2nd class representation. Even with a staff of dedicated lawyers, this problem remains today.
According to phone taps, Green called Demery and told him that hishome was surrounded by men with guns and urged his friend to comeover to provide "…some back". Demery, on the other line with his fiancée Angela, thought that Green was playing a practical joke onhim and clicked back over to continue an argument with the woman whowas carrying his child, a child that Demery had asked Green to be Godfather to.
Daniel immediately called back and revealed his realization that the men with weapons were police officers. He told Demery to give hismother enough money to bail him out. He expected to be arrested for possession of stolen goods.
Daniel was taken into custody following the advice of this mother herasked for an attorney to be present during questioning. He was toldthat an attorney was en route. With this the weapon brandishing oficers began an interrogation of the minor that would last for seven hours.
The officers used every tactic available to intimidate Green into confessing and saying that Demery had murdered Jordan, including theillegal practice of questioning "outside Miranda".
This strategic method of circumventing the constitution includes intentionally with holding Miranda Warnings, ignoring requests for counsel, and lulling the target into not asserting the Miranda Rightsthat they are intentionally kept ignorant of.
It soon became obvious to the detectives that Green was misleadingthem and lying to protect his friend of ten years. Even when Greenwas told he would receive three to ten years for accessory after the fact if he signed a statement implicating Demery, he refused.
Daniel told the investigators that he had just spent two and a half years in prison for a crime he was not guilty of because he cooperated with the police. (This is the conviction that was
overturned by attorneys from the N.C. Death Penalty Resource Centerand law students). He has no reason to trust the police and he didnot intend on helping them send the friend he loved like a brother to death row.
In a final play to gain Green's cooperation, he was told that "Mr.Jordan has a penchant for young boys and girls" and had "probably tried to force Demery into having sex with him." An investigatorwould repeat the former allegations to a newspaper years later. To support this allegation Green was told that James Jordan had severalchildren out of wedlock from young girls and even accused Jordan of sexually molesting his own daughter, Deloris Jordan, several of herfriends and employees of the Jordan family.
When Green expressed his disbelief about these accusations and questioned why these things were never in the news, detectives toldhim that money could buy silence. The investigators then suggestedto Green that Demery killed Jordan in self-defense after Jordan came onto him. Green agreed that it was "possible but not probable".When Green still refused to co-sign the investigators attempt toclose the case without regard to the truth he was taken to amagistrate and charged with the murder of James Jordan.
Unbeknownst to Green the authorities went to Demery's home shortlyafter Greens phone call to Larry. Based on descriptions of Demerygiven by the men who had stripped the Lexus in Fayetteville, N.C.Demery's cousin, a Robeson County Sheriff's Deputy, identified Larryas the man they were looking for.
After receiving Green's call, Demery concealed himself in a bean filed near his home. When the officers left he returned home wherehis parents demanded that he turn himself in. They accompanied himto the Robeson County Sheriff's Department in Lumberton, N.C. Thiswas a trip they had made many times before.
A few years earlier, Demery had started getting in trouble. At firstit was petty crimes like destruction of property. His next charges were breaking and entering. First personal property, then aneighborhood store. Around the same time he began abusing crack cocaine and was committing crimes to support his habit, including stealing from his parents repeatedly.
Instead of receiving proper treatment in a drug program he was givenprobation and received counseling for underlying psychologicalproblems that stemmed from being subjected to physical abuse at the hands of his father and watching him abuse his mother. When he dropped out of school it was because of the pressure he was under at home; not because of a lack of intelligence. In fact, he is highly intelligent and well read. The friendship Demery and Green sharedwas based on their common interest in books.
Demery increasingly became more violent. He robbed a local character "Pitt the Bean" and beat him for making a remark to
Demery's fiancée Angela. He and Daniel Oxendine robbed a store near their high school and beat the owner who was so traumatized that he closed the store down.
The final crime he committed is when he and several others robbed a Pantry store and Demery hit and old woman in the head with a brick. The violence he was subjected to at home war magnified by him in order to support his addiction. In each of these crimes Larry Demeryeither acted alone or he was the leader and instigator, he was notthe passive follower that the state portrayed him to be to give credibility to his testimony in the Jordan case.
Many of his peers considered him to be weird but he was no devoid ofredemptive qualities that inspired loyalty in his friends including Green.
When Black students integrated Union Elementary School Demery was the first to befriend Green. In 3rd grade Demery game a speech at a Black History Month program in which he voiced his support for the Blackstudents and proudly proclaimed Daniel as being his best friend.Shortly afterward the two boys became blood brothers in the pre-aidsritual of exchanging blood. They entered science fairs, break dancing contests and book reading competitions together. They stayedat one another's homes and even fought together – mostly when Demery would help his Black friend in an overtly racist environment.
Most importantly to Green was the simple fact that Demery stayed intouch with him when Green was imprisoned for the charge that was later vacated.
Upon Green's release Demery told him about his crack cocaine addiction, Green promised to help him stay clean and Demery promisedto help Green get the money to fulfill his goal of going to the School of Arts in Miami, Florida.
Approximately a month after Green's release he , Demery and a third party robbed two couples at a hotel on the spur of the moment.Demery brandished the weapon, Green collected the spoils. A monthlater the investigators of Jordan's murder were using the sameintimidation tactics in interrogating Demery that they had used on Green. They even threatened Demery with "a needle up your ass, son"in reference to the death penalty.
The officers finally restricted to outright deception, telling Demery that Green had fingered him in the murder of Jordan and that the only way to save his own life would be for him to place the blame on Green.
Fatigued, scared and feeling that his best friend had betrayed him,Demery wrote a statement that portrayed himself as an unwilling participant that was merely present when Green surprised him by killing Jordan in his sleep. By the time Demery found out that the investigators had tricked him into lying on his best friend, it wastoo late to tell the truth without placing himself on death row.
Here's the whole article:
http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-108360.html...oh and yeah...Happy fathers day!
