Judge: Free Man Convicted of Killing Michael Jordan's Father

In 1996, Judge Gregory Weeks sentenced Daniel Green to life in prison for the fatal shooting of James Jordan, the father of NBA great Michael Jordan. On Tuesday, Weeks petitioned North Carolina's parole commission to release Green. The judge said a forensic blood analyst in the case failed to disclose that a blood-like substance found in the car where Jordan was killed might not have been his blood, ABC News reports. That could have changed the outcome of the murder trial, and Weeks told the state panel that the fact that the test results were omitted has haunted him since 1996, people at the proceeding said.

Green, 49, told ABC from the Southern Correctional Institution that the fact that the judge who "presided over my trial asked that I be paroled is significant," adding, "It speaks volumes about this case, and I'm overwhelmingly grateful." During the trial, prosecutors said Green and a friend killed Jordan on July 23, 1993, during a botched robbery. A spokesperson said it will probably be at least a month before the commission makes its decision on whether to grant Green parole. The Rev. Thomas Jones was among the criminal justice advocates, in addition to the judge, who urged Green's release on Tuesday. "When I heard the judge speak on his behalf, I was weeping," Jones said. "I was flabbergasted." (More murder trial stories.)