Why we shouldn't need LeBron to tell us racism is a problem Should it really matter that she also came to love that man and decided to spend her life with him? She worked for years to grant a man his freedom. She used her platform to call attention to not only Irons' case but the need for criminal justice reform. Let's be clear: Moore stepped away from basketball in the prime of what will be a Hall of Fame career to pursue justice for a man she believed was wrongfully convicted. 5, 2019, that she would step away from basketball to pursue "ministry dreams" - later revealed to be her fight for Irons' freedom. But she kept her advocacy largely to herself until she spoke out with her Minnesota Lynx teammates in 2016 after the killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling.Įventually, though, the pull toward Irons, away from basketball, became too great, and she announced on Feb. Over time, as Moore's national profile expanded, her interest in Irons and his case grew, too. Moore met Irons the summer after she graduated from high school in 2007, many years after her godfather, Reggie Williams, became interested in Irons' case. The facts of Moore's sacrifice and activism haven't changed either. That conviction was vacated in March of this year, and he was released from prison on J- after spending more than two decades behind bars - after the state of Missouri exhausted all legal recourse. In 1998, when he was 18, Irons was convicted and sentenced to 50 years in prison for burglary and assault, despite no physical evidence tying him to the scene of the crime. THE FACTS OF Jonathan Irons' case have not changed. Jeff Haldiman/The Jefferson City News-Tribune via AP Photo Truthfully, the only question worth asking is one we should be asking of ourselves: Why do we care? After spending years fighting for Jonathan Irons' freedom, Maya Moore spoke with him over the phone in March after his convictions had been vacated. But these questions do nothing but miss the larger point. This was someone who, for years now, has been lauded for her selfless activism - for disrupting her own life to fight for a man who couldn't fight for himself. Would she have done this had there not been a romantic connection? The news sparked a flurry of questions over social media and the sports landscape. On Wednesday morning on "Good Morning America," Moore announced to the world that she and Irons got married a couple of months ago in a socially distanced event with their closest family and friends. Now, we know differently - that the pain was perhaps the separation she felt from the man she would soon call her husband. Inside Maya Moore's extraordinary quest for justiceĪt the time, I took that to mean the pain she felt for him as a brother or family friend.One of the results of someone suffering injustice is that pain." Editor's Picks In response to my question about her emotion in the courtroom, she said: "I'm heartbroken that we can't console him as part of our family. Listening to his sobs, Moore gripped the railing in front of her and clenched her jaw, willing her own tears to be kept at bay.Īfter the hearing, underneath a gray sky spitting pellets of rain, Moore stood on the courthouse steps to answer questions from the few media members in attendance. The validation, the burden of the truth, crashed over Irons. Irons had just heard his original lawyer say that she didn't have access to a crucial piece of evidence in 1998, something that was discovered by Moore's godfather 12 years before it ever made it into a courtroom. It was October 2019, and Irons' legal team was presenting the case for his innocence and wrongful conviction. SITTING IN A courtroom in Jefferson City, Missouri, I could hear Jonathan Irons crying from his seat across the room - but my eyes were fixed on Maya Moore, the WNBA star who eight months earlier had walked away from basketball to free this man from prison.
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