ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 2, 1996 TAG: 9601020185
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
LUMBERTON, N.C. - Whether jurors will see a videotape of two men showing off a National Basketball Association ring and Chicago Bulls watch is still at issue as one defendant goes on trial on a charge of killing basketball star Michael Jordan's father.
Daniel Andre Green could face the death penalty if convicted of the July 22, 1993, killing of James Jordan, whose body was found in a South Carolina swamp.
A hearing on pretrial motions, including whether the tape can be shown, is scheduled today, and opening arguments are to begin Wednesday. The jury has been chosen.
``I've been counting the days,'' Green said last week in a jail interview. ``This has been the longest week I've been in here.''
Michael Jordan has said he doesn't want to turn the trial into a media circus by attending. He will be in North Carolina when the trial opens, however, because the Chicago Bulls are scheduled to play the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday.
Green, 21, and his boyhood friend, 20-year-old Larry Demery, were arrested more than three weeks after the slayings. Robbery is considered to be the motive. - Associated Press Smoking bypasses benefits of surgery
DALLAS - A group of scientists has a suggestion for heart bypass patients: Bypass cigarettes.
Patients who smoke after bypass surgery have more than twice as much risk of some complications from the surgery, compared with patients who stop smoking after the procedure, the Dutch researchers conclude.
A study, appearing in Monday's issue of the American Heart Association journal Circulation, focused on 415 patients - 372 men and 43 women - who underwent bypass surgery in 1976 and 1977.
``Patients who smoke at one year after surgery had a 21/2 times elevated risk of undergoing [another bypass] compared with patients who quit smoking since surgery,'' their report said. It also said patients who smoked regularly five years after the operation were 3.3 times more likely to undergo another bypass. - Associated Press Briefly ...
A new drug to help diabetics is going on the market this week in the United States after being available for years in Europe and Japan. Precose, brand name for the drug acarbose, is for diabetics who are not dependent on insulin injections.
Researchers have found a second gene responsible for malignant melanoma, an aggressive and often deadly form of skin cancer. Using DNA samples and data provided by the National Cancer Institute, scientists at Sequana Therapeutics Inc., a genomics company based in San Diego, Calif., have identified a defect in a gene that can lead to melanoma. Their findings appear in this month's issue of the journal Nature Genetics.
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