Jordan’s request comes after a federal judge ruled on Dec. 19 that the government had not presented enough evidence to support his federal murder conviction tied to the 2002 killing of Jam Master Jay, a turntable star for Run-DMC. His attorneys filed the bond bid Friday, seeking his release while prosecutors pursue an appeal.
In the filing, attorneys led by John Diaz argued that the reversal amounted to a change that justified release rather than continued detention. They wrote that “there are seismic changes in circumstances warranting Mr. Jordan’s release,” according to the court submission.
Prosecutors declined to comment, and the case had no scheduled date yet for a hearing on the bond proposal. The filing asks that Jordan be freed on $1 million bond, with electronic monitoring included among the proposed conditions.
The bond request also reflects that the overturned conviction is not the only case Jordan is fighting. In addition to seeking release in the murder matter, Jordan continues to face unrelated federal drug charges, which prosecutors and his lawyers have indicated could be resolved through plea discussions. Jordan pleaded not guilty to the drug charges earlier in the proceedings.
Jordan and co-defendant Ronald Washington were convicted in 2024 of the killing. Prosecutors said the men killed the DJ out of greed and anger over a failed drug deal that Jam Master Jay, born Jason Mizell, was engineering, while Washington and Jordan denied the charges.
On Dec. 19, U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall overturned Jordan’s conviction, acquitted him, and left Washington’s conviction intact. During a hearing last week, Hall commiserated with Jordan when he returned to court for the first time since an earlier prison attack. “It shouldn’t have happened to you,” she said. “It shouldn’t have happened to anyone.”
Jordan has been held for more than five years in Brooklyn federal jail, and his attorneys said he suffered injuries during an inmate brawl in February. They said in Friday’s filing that Jordan was stabbed in the back 18 times and that he has enduring “physical, mental and emotional scars.”
The Jam Master Jay case has taken years to reach a final resolution after the rapper was gunned down in his New York City studio in 2002, at age 37. As the DJ in Run-DMC, Mizell helped hip-hop break through to mainstream audiences in the 1980s, including with hits such as “It’s Tricky” and the group’s remake of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.”
Jordan, now 42, is Mizell’s godson. Washington is a longtime friend of Mizell. Prosecutors’ appeal means Jordan’s future on the murder count still depends on whether the reversal is upheld or changed.