Less than a year prior to the infamous Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman murder that shook pop culture in the mid-nineties, tragedy befell the man who was hailed as the greatest basketball player alive Michael Jordan, when his father James Jordan Sr. was found dead in August 1993. While the trial for Jordan’s murderers may not have gotten the attention that the trials of OJ Simpson, and Yolanda Saldivar that took place within the year prior, IMDB TV Originals Moment of Truth has shed new light on the case, the trial and the media to answer was the wrong man convicted for Jordan’s murder?
The five-part Moment of Truth docuseries does a good job introducing who James Jordan was. Yes, he was Michael Jordan’s dad, but he was more than that. In presenting a brief look at James Jordan’s life before his son’s birth, and as his son became a basketball legend and hero, it helps give a better understanding about who Michael Jordan himself is. Michael who is shown in archival footage clips speaks about his father prior to the murder and the docuseries shows how much pride and admiration father and son had for each other.
As the docuseries gets further into the episodes, the murder is quickly addressed and some shocking details are revealed such as the state of decomposition of Jordan’s body after it was found in a swamp in South Carolina. The series flashes crime scene photos, making sure not to show anything too graphic.
The story takes a shift and focuses on Daniel Andre Green and Larry Martin Demery the two young men convicted of killing James Jordan. The narrative begins to shift and delve into the lives and friendship between Green and Demery, giving a sense that Demery himself was the mastermind behind the murder who sold Green out for a lesser sentence. We even hear of Green himself speak of Demery’s betrayal. In examining the supposed betrayal racial bias are presented with Green being a black man while Demery was non-black, presenting Demery as the favored defendant in the case due to his racial background. Throughout it, all Green maintains his innocence but is in a losing battle.
What makes the series timely is how it explores the politics surrounding the trial and conviction exploring how things haven’t changed much in regards to the incarceration of young black men when evidence is circumstantial which the series tries to drive home. Viewers expecting the series to be Michael Jordan focused however or for a docuseries about the true impact of the murder on a celebrity relative on the family or culture won’t get that experience from watching the docuseries.
IMDB TV Originals Moment of Truth premieres on April 2nd.
