Before working on this podcast, I had never heard the recordings of the interrogations of Daniel Green and Larry Demery. I had heard of them. Attorneys told me investigators had used standard, legal scare tactics to try and coerce a story out of one or both of them that could close the case swiftly.
But when you listen to the interrogation tapes, it becomes pretty clear that it didn’t seem to matter to investigators which teenager caved first. They just needed someone to say they were there and saw the other one kill James Jordan. Under North Carolina law, that’s all they needed to charge both of them with murder.
Investigators lied at times, telling both suspects that the other one had already thrown him under the bus, so he needed to come clean. To be clear, this is all perfectly legal when it comes to interviewing suspects in the aftermath of a crime. But it still doesn’t feel right. Why? Because it is in direct opposition to what we think about when we consider justice. Fairness, truth and justice are inextricably intertwined in how we look at these moments of deception even though we know they are legal.
There were some unusual moments that were not caught on tape but were reflected in notes or transcripts of the interrogations. In one instance, an investigator tells Demery he is likely to face a “needle in the ass and not wake up” if he doesn’t come clean. In another instance, an investigator tells Green that homicide investigators work for God.
So, why is all of this so unsettling? It’s unsettling because it’s hard to imagine anyone standing up to this kind of scrutiny, but especially two teenagers with little education and former brushes with the criminal justice system. Remember, they had no lawyers present. Green wasn’t under arrest when he spoke to investigators. But come on, basically he’s a kid. He’s surrounded by adults with guns. It would scare anyone. And did he really understand that he had a right not to answer those questions? Probably not. Later a judge ruled that even though he was under no obligation to talk, it sure didn’t look that way to Green, or to any objective person on the outside looking in.
We’ve said it before – the celebrity of Michael Jordan overshadowed this case in ways we still can’t even begin to understand. These investigators were being pushed to have a fast resolution. Make someone talk was their directive. When Demery turned on Green, they met their goal. And it’s here, in this moment, that valid questions about how this case was handled begin to percolate for me.
So, when you listen to this episode, listen closely. What do you hear in the recordings of the interrogations? How does it impact your impression of how this case was handled?
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July 27, 2021 at 05:00PM
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Follow the Truth: Interrogation tapes reveal 'first to talk' tactic of investigators after James Jordan's... - WRAL.com
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