THE judge who sentenced Daniel Green to life in prison for the murder of Michael Jordan's father has petitioned for his release.
James Jordan was murdered aged 56 in July 1993 as he slept in his car in Lumberton, North Carolina.
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His body was subsequently found on August 3, in a swamp in McColl, South Carolina.
Green was arrested alongside Larry Demery after the duo made calls from Jordan Sr's cell phone.
Demery's subsequent testimony claimed that Green pulled the trigger.
Both men were sentenced to life in prison in 1996, but Demery was granted parole in 2020 - although this has since been revoked.
Meanwhile, Green has been seeking a retrial, having told WRAL News in 2018, "I’ve never killed anybody. I didn’t kill James Jordan. I’m innocent. I’m innocent of murder."
As per ABC News, judge Gregory Weeks, who presided over the 1996 trial, petitioned for Green's release in front of North Carolina’s parole commission on Tuesday.
At the time, prosecutors believed that the murder had been committed following a "robbery gone wrong".
Weeks' major concern is said to stem from the result of blood tests from Jordan Sr's car.
He claimed in the petition that an analyst at the time did not disclose that blood tests from a substance found in the car came back inconclusive. These results could have drastically changed the outcome of the trial.
Weeks has not since commented publicly on the case.
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But criminal justice advocate Rev. Thomas Jones, who has also been campaigning for Green's release, told ABC News, "When I heard the judge speak on his behalf, I was weeping. I was flabbergasted."
He then claimed that Weeks told the commission that he "had never been haunted in such a manner as he was haunted by this case".
Green, now 49, claims that he had been attending a cookout with Demery, who then left to make a drug deal.
He then alleges that hours later when he returned, a "shaken" Demery asked him to help dispose of the body.
'REGRET'
Green claims that, while he did agree to do so, he was not involved in the murder itself.
"Every day I live with the remorse and the pain and the suffering caused by my youthful decisions," he wrote in a letter to the commission. "I regret the harm my actions inflicted on the Jordan family."
The commission is expected to deliberate for a month before coming to their final decision.
Green has spoken to ABC from prison amid Weeks' appearance in front of the commission.
He said that the fact that the man who "presided over my trial asked that I be paroled is significant."
"It speaks volumes about this case, and I'm overwhelmingly grateful."
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