Maya Moore’s Tireless Devotion Helps Set Innocent Man Free

By Bob Phillips

Maya Moore (left) and Jonathan Irons after Irons was released from prison
after spending 22 years for a crime he did not commit.

JEFFERSON CITY, MO—This is not breaking news, but since it is July 4th, the story involves one of Connecticut’s adopted daughters, and is all about liberty, I have chosen to use it today, on our nation’s 244th birthday. Admittedly, there is much going on in this country today that doesn’t make me feel very proud to be an American.

Here’s one that does.

On Wednesday, Jonathan Irons, a wrongly convicted African American male walked out of prison when a judge overturned his conviction on charges of burglary and assault. His decision was made largely thanks to the tireless efforts of former UConn star Maya Moore.

Moore, who’s resume is without question one of a Hall-of-Famer to be (she is a two-time Olympic gold medalist with Team USA, two-time NCAA champion with the Huskies and four-time WNBA titlist with the Lynx), walked away from her day job last season, devoting her life. Instead, to absolving a man she believed was wrongly convicted and incarcerated. A deeply religious woman, Moore, healthy and in her prime, announced that there were things bigger than basketball in her life, and that she would not stop until her friend, Jonathan Irons, was a free man.

And with that she walked away from the WNBA and devoted her life to her ministry. And her passionate cause.

Moore played a major role in leading the Minnesota Lynx to
four WNBA titles.

Moore’s family met Irons, now 40, in 2007 through their church’s prison ministry program. Maya first met Irons at the Jefferson City Correctional Center, a maximum-security prison where he was serving his sentence, as she was beginning her freshman year with the Huskies. Moore was convicted of burglary and assault with a weapon of a suburban homeowner in suburban St. Louis. Jefferson City, of course, is Maya's hometown.

There was never any physical evidence presented connecting Irons to the crime during the trial. No eyewitnesses, no fingerprints, no DNA evidence. All of the evidence presented was circumstantial but, you know, someone committed the crime and someone had to pay for it. And so it was that Irons was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison by an all-white jury.

But Moore didn’t believe it. Not for one second. So she became Irons’ advocate, devoting her life to freeing an innocent man.

In March, Irons was granted a writ of habeas corpus—a legal term for the process that determines if a person’s imprisonment is lawful. Missouri’s attorney general appealed that decision. Twice. Both were denied. The county’s lead prosecutor ultimately decided to give up the chase. And so, after 22 years in prison, Irons was a free man.

Finally.

Irons now plans to devote his life to helping others wrongly incarcerated. “I want to advocate for people who are less fortunate,” he said on appearance on Good Morning America. “I want to help people with their cases. I want to speak to positive change and be part of the rebuilding process from where we’re at right now, because there’s so much greater doming on the horizon. I see it. Even in the darkness I was able to see it. We shouldn’t give up. We should keep going.”

That, friends, defines paying it forward.

Maya will be forever loved by UConn fans after leading the Huskies to
two NCAA championships during her four years in Storrs.

As for Moore, her basketball future is not determined. She won’t be back this season in the WNBA’s weird “season in a bubble” in Florida. However, she had already decided to take 2020 off regardless of the outcome of Irons’ case. Whether Moore returns in 2021 after two years away from the game is a matter of conjecture.

“I’m in a really good place right now with my life, and I don’t want to change anything,” she told The New York Times in January. “Basketball has not been foremost in my mind. I’ve been able to rest and connect with people around me—actually be in their presence after all of these years on the road. And I’ve been able to be there for Jonathan.

“Hats off to people that sacrifice, that pay a cost of a platform, of a job, of money to stand up for something greater than yourselves and at the end of the day, if we remember we’re human beings first, I think it’ll make it a little less controversial.”

Interestingly, Moore’s team, the Minnesota Lynx, play their games at the Target Center in Minneapolis, site of ongoing protests since the death of a black man, George Floyd, at the hands (or rather knee) of a white police officer. In any event, her words do not sound like someone chomping at the bit to get back on the low-pay, high-risk WNBA horse, does it?

—with staff reports

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