In September, she announced that the two had married. He was released last July 1 after serving 23 years. After her sixth season with the Minnesota Lynx, she left that career behind to help Irons become free. And hopefully creating a deterrent to stop this from happening to someone else.”Īs previously reported by theGrio, Moore, out of women’s basketball powerhouse UConn, was a 2-time NCAA champion and a 4-time WNBA champion. “This lawsuit is about publicly exposing what has happened to me, sharing the truth, and creating public awareness. “I am not the only person that this has happened to,” he told Roberts. He hopes to prevent additional wrongful convictions from occurring. Now free, Irons is pursuing a civil lawsuit against the authorities who investigated his case. In 2020, the women’s basketball league dedicated its season to social justice. Moore and Irons’ love story underscores the commitment of WNBA players to advocacy and prison reform. Read More: A’ja Wilson speaks on WNBA’s fight for social change and life inside the ‘Wubble’ His DNA, fingerprints, footprints, nor any physical evidence were ever linked to the crime, but an all-white jury convicted him anyway. Irons was just 16 when he was arrested for a nonfatal shooting of a white homeowner during a burglary.

But as Moore shined a light on details of his case, a series of problems even began to be acknowledged by the judge who later vacated his convictions. Initially, Irons faced a 50-year sentence for burglary and assault in Missouri.

Shortly after Moore met Irons through a prison ministry program in 2007, she began to raise awareness of his case. Maya Moore and Jonathan Irons on Good Morning America (Source: ABC News)

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