W.N.B.A. Star Maya Moore Helped Overturn His Conviction. ‘She Saved My Life.’

The two have been close friends ever since and share a sibling-like bond. Moore began speaking out for Irons’s release over the last several years.

Irons, born into severe poverty, was 16 when the crime for which he was convicted occurred. He was prosecuted for burglarizing a home in a St. Louis suburb and assaulting the homeowner with a gun. There were no corroborating witnesses, fingerprints, DNA, or blood evidence connecting Irons to the crime. Prosecutors claimed that Irons admitted to breaking into the victim’s home. Irons and his lawyers denied any such admission. The officer who interrogated Irons did so alone and failed to record the conversation.

Irons, who is African-American, was tried as an adult and found guilty by an all-white jury.

Judge Green’s decision Monday hinged on fingerprint evidence that had not been divulged by prosecutors in Irons’s initial trial. The fingerprints, found inside a door that would have been used to exit the house, did not belong to Irons or to the crime’s victim. Kent Gipson, Irons’s lawyer, argued that the state had withheld that evidence, which could have shown someone else was responsible for the crime.

Speaking over the phone from prison, Irons said he began crying, jumping and shouting as soon as he’d heard the news. “It feels like I can just breathe, like the weight of the world is off of me, like I have the chance to live.”

Asked about Moore, he was succinct: “She saved my life. I would not have this chance if not for her and her wonderful family. She saved my life and I cannot say it better than that.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/09/sports/basketball/maya-moore-jonathan-irons.html