![]() In throwing out the conviction, a judge determined that prosecutors had failed to disclose “unassailable forensic evidence” of Irons’ innocence: A report of a fingerprint at the crime scene that did not belong to either him or the victim. In March, Irons’ conviction was overturned for lack of evidence. She attended every one of his hearings, and helped hire a top defense lawyer. ![]() In January 2019, Moore announced she would take a leave from the WNBA to fight for Irons’ freedom. A career that is measured in years, not decades.īut there comes a time when good intentions are not good enough. She was, after all, in the prime of her basketball career. She could have used her status as a star athlete to get meetings with politicians in positions of influence. The two kept in touch, and after a series of high-profile shootings by Black men by police officers in 2016, Moore began lobbying for changes to policing and judicial system.Ī four-time WNBA champion and the 2014 league MVP with the Minnesota Lynx, Moore could have stuck to writing letters and mentioning his case during interviews, hoping it would put pressure on law-enforcement officials. “When I met Jonathan, I was 17, my eyes were open and my mind was blown to the reality of there are people in prison who shouldn't be there,” Moore once said. Moore’s great-uncle met Irons through his prison ministry, and he and her godparents introduced the basketball phenom to him as a first-hand lesson on the injustices of the judicial system for people of color. No eyewitnesses, either.ĭAILY DELIVERY: Get each day's top sports news and analysis. Irons insisted he was innocent, and there was no physical evidence – no fingerprints, no blood, no DNA – to link him to the crime. Irons was 18 when he was sentenced to 50 years in prison, convicted by an all-white jury of a shooting and burglary at a white man’s home outside of St. Much like Muhammad Ali, who lost three years of his career for his opposition to the Vietnam War, Moore has realized there are things far bigger than herself. Our policing, housing, schools, judicial system – there is no part of American life where the system isn’t still rigged against Black people.Īs the rest of America grapples with what to do now, how to channel the rage and frustration and embarrassment of the last month into real change, Moore is way ahead. ![]() The death of George Floyd beneath the knee of a white police officer has finally forced this country to reckon with the racism that remains baked into our society 155 years after the end of the Civil War. “This is obviously one of the biggest and most direct results of that.” “When I stepped away two springs ago, I just really wanted to shift my priorities, to be able to be more available and present, to show up for things that I felt were mattering more than being a professional athlete,” Moore said Thursday morning during an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America. Waiting for him was Moore, who took a leave from the WNBA at the height of her career to try and right the grievous wrong that had been done to Irons. Jonathan Irons walked out of prison Wednesday night, finally free after serving more than 22 years for a crime he did not commit. Watch Video: Why Maya Moore willingly put her career on hold to create changeĬorrections/clarifications: A previous version of this column misstated how long ago the Civil War ended.Īs great as Maya Moore has been on the basketball court, it’s what she has done off it that will be her legacy.
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