Murder of Michael Jordan's Dad Off Mishandled Cases List

(AFP) - The 1993 murder of James Jordan, father of National Basketball Association icon Michael Jordan, has been removed from a list of cases said to have been mis-handled by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, AFP reported Thursday.

Former Federal Bureau of Investigation assistant director Chris Swecker said the Jordan case was taken off the list after a second look at documents.

James Jordan was shot as he slept in a car beside a North Carolina highway.

Swecker's independent review concluded last month that the North Carolina bureau failed to disclose details about inconclusive blood tests in the investigation.

But Swecker said Thursday he had overlooked language in which the bureau did, in fact, refer to those results.

Attorneys for one of the men convicted of the murder, Daniel Andre Green, had argued the physical evidence was weak, questioning why there was little, if any, blood in the vehicle.

The recent review of the NCSBI laboratory cited irregularities in 190 criminal cases in which analysts omitted, overstated or falsely reported blood evidence.

The cases covered by the review occurred over a 16-year period that ended in 2003.

Two months after James Jordan's body was found, Michael Jordan walked away from basketball to attempt a career in baseball -- his father's first love. He returned to the NBA two seasons later.

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