North Carolina prosecutors have asked the state's top court to review a trial court order vacating the convictions of two men found guilty of murdering NBA star Chris Paul's grandfather in 2002, before the state appeals court rules on the order, court documents show.

In a petition for discretionary review filed Monday, prosecutors argued a definitive resolution by the state Supreme Court is necessary because Rayshawn Banner and Nathaniel Cauthen, who spent nearly 20 years in state prison for the murder, which they claim they did not commit, will be released without any supervisory conditions if the trial court's decision is affirmed on appeal.

Urging the state's high court to hear the case, prosecutors said Banner and Cauthen, who are still incarcerated, would be entitled to unconditional release under the trial court's order, issued on Aug. 8.

The state's petition argues Supreme Court intervention is needed for a "prompt and definitive resolution" to promote "uniform administration" and "expeditious administration of justice."

"The state intends to argue on appeal that the trial court's 8 August 2025 order was erroneous because the court failed to apply mandatory procedural bars imposed by statute, granted relief on claims that were substantively meritless, and imposed a remedy — dismissal of the charges against defendants with prejudice and no opportunity for retrial by the state — that was unauthorized by North Carolina law," the petition says.

Banner and Cauthen were tried jointly in 2004 and convicted by a jury of first-degree murder and robbery with a dangerous weapon in the murder of 61-year-old Nathaniel Jones, who was robbed and killed at his home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and is the grandfather of Paul, a North Carolina native who plays for the LA Clippers. Banner and Cauthen were sentenced to life without possibility of parole.

Two other co-defendants, Christopher Bryant and Jermal Tolliver, were convicted of second-degree murder and robbery and sentenced to 13 to 16 1⁄2 years in prison. They were released in 2017, according to the petition.

All four defendants were teenagers at the time of the crime.

From 2015 through 2020, each of the four defendants sought review from the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission, asserting actual innocence in Jones's killing.

In 2020, the commission found the claims warranted further examination and referred the matter for an evidentiary hearing before a three-judge superior court panel, which took place in April 2022. However, at the conclusion of the hearing, a three-judge panel ruled unanimously that there was not clear and convincing evidence that the defendants were innocent.

In 2023, all four defendants filed motions to vacate their convictions based on newly discovered evidence they argued proved their innocence, including exculpatory DNA evidence and recanted testimony from Jessica Black, a key witness in their trial. They also raised claims of ineffective counsel representation. The state responded that those claims were meritless or procedurally barred.

Last August, a trial judge in Forsyth County, North Carolina, found that Black's recantation, the DNA evidence and the ineffective claims were sufficient, along with claims related to developments in the fields of adolescent developmental psychology and the psychology of police interrogations and confessions, to grant relief vacating the convictions of all four defendants, including Banner and Cauthen, the only two still incarcerated. The court ordered Banner and Cauthen released.

In September, the Court of Appeals lifted a temporary stay, prompting prosecutors to seek relief from the state Supreme Court. The high court later issued a stay of the trial court's order until an appeal is finalized with the state intermediate court.

Christine C. Mumma of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence, who represents Banner and Cauthen, said her clients are "100% innocent."

Mumma said the procedural history of the case has wreaked havoc in the lives of her clients, who have been incarcerated since their teenage years.

"When the order came down in August, they were told to pack up their things. They were going home. They gave away all their things in prison. Their mother was ready to go get them, and then they were told there was a stay," she said. "Understanding how it is that they were exonerated in August, and they're still in prison is something that's very difficult to explain to these boys — I mean, I still call them boys, even though they're in their 30s, because they were 14 and 15 when they were arrested."

Mumma said the North Carolina Attorney General's Office has shut down her efforts to bring Banner and Cauthen home, including proposals to have them retried after securing their release on bond.

"I don't know if it's egos that are just doing this [for], or if it has something to do with Chris Paul, or what is causing this situation that nobody seems to be able to comprehend," she said.

Paul could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Attorneys from the North Carolina Attorney General's Office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

The government is represented by Heidi M. Williams and Sherri Horner Lawrence of the North Carolina Department of Justice.

Banner and Cauthen are represented by Christine C. Mumma and Michael T. Robertson of the North Carolina Center on Actual Innocence.

The case is State of North Carolina v. Rayshawn Denard Banner et al., case number 249P25, in the Supreme Court of North Carolina.

--Editing by Drashti Mehta.