Larry Demery, one of the two men convicted of murdering Michael Jordan’s father in 1993, has been granted parole and will be released from prison in 2023.
James Jordan was killed on July 23, 1993 while he was sleeping in his car on the side of a highway in Lumberton, North Carolina. Demery and Daniel Green were both convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. Demery was spared the death penalty when his lawyers argued that he did not pull the trigger and felt remorse; he pleaded guilty and turned over evidence against Green.
On Tuesday, the North Carolina Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission announced it had approved Demery for a vocational and scholastic program known as the Mutual Agreement Parole Program (MAPP). His release date is set for Aug. 6, 2023.
North Carolina no longer allows parole for prisoners serving life sentences for murder unless their crimes were committed before Oct. 1, 1994, but since Jordan was murdered in 1993, Demery was still eligible for parole.
Demery has said that he and Green were planning to rob a motel that night but changed their target when Jordan’s expensive car caught their eye. He says they did not realize who they had killed until they were rifling through his possessions.
A representative for Michael Jordan reached by CNN declined to comment about Demery’s forthcoming release.
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