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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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
#mayamoore @MooreMaya @WNBA #WNBA #minnesotalynx #BLM #UConnWBB
