This was Maya Moore, in her prime.Ĭonsider: At 29 years old, she'd already won four WNBA championships and a league MVP award. 5, 2019, Maya Moore made an announcement on The Players' Tribune that would upend the WNBA: She would be sitting out the 2019 season to focus on "the people in my family, as well as on investing my time in some ministry dreams that have been stirring in my heart for many years." "All rise." For the past 16 months, former Minnesota Lynx superstar Maya Moore has dedicated her life to the exoneration of a Missouri man named Jonathan Irons, who at age 16 was convicted in 1998 of assault and battery and sentenced to 50 years in prison. The bailiff stands up from his seat at the front of the room. And it is Moore's opportunity to prove that leaving the WNBA at the height of her talents was not in vain. This hearing is Irons' best chance to try to convince at least one person in the criminal justice system of the innocence he's claimed for over two decades. It is, in many respects, Maya Moore's too.
Maya gives her mother a nod before reaching back a pew to clasp Henderson's hand. Kathryn leans over to Maya and whispers in her ear, giving her shoulder a comforting squeeze. "Ooh!" Irons says, giving Jonathan's suit the once-over. Jonathan stands, clasping a large brown envelope - details of Irons' case, the product of over a decade of investment in Irons by the Williams family. Irons calls to Jonathan Williams, Cheri's 25-year-old son. Even the judge, Daniel Green, is connected to Moore.
Moore's fourth-grade teacher, Joni Henderson, sits next to the Williams family. Irons, who grew up without knowing his birth father, grew so close to Flowers that he came to see him as a father figure. It was Cheri's father, Hugh Flowers, who first formed a bond in the early 2000s with Irons while volunteering as the choir director at Jefferson City Correctional Center. Her godparents, Cheri and Reggie Williams, who have advocated for Irons for the past 15 years, sit behind them and next to Cheri's parents. Moore sits next to her mother, Kathryn, in the front pew, 6 feet from Irons, her eyes fixated on the profile of his face. "Yes, he is," comes a response from the crowd. "God is a chain-breaker, you hear me?" he says. "Clothes don't make the man," he says, taking his seat at the head of his legal table, his chair facing the judge's bench. Moore and her loved ones fill the first two pews that extend across the room and half of the third.Ī man named Jonathan Irons enters the room, the chains of his silver shackles clanking against the floor with his every step. Two tables for the respective legal teams sit in front of a wooden banister. Four rows of wooden pews make up the seating area. After it's decided that today's proceedings will happen here, in the smaller room, Moore's family follows her inside. The group is big enough - a couple dozen people - that there is a question about whether the hearing should be moved to the upper chamber. Moore's family and friends form a crowd outside the hearing room. "A little nervous," she says, "but ready for this day." Her blue suede sneakers squeak against the marble tile as she descends the stairs to the security X-ray machine, empties her pockets and puts her purse on the belt, then marches up the narrow stairs to the main floor of the courthouse. Game 4 of the WNBA Finals was last night, but instead of watching the Connecticut Sun force a decisive Game 5 against the Washington Mystics, Moore was here, meeting with lawyers. Her hair is pulled back and laid under a headband, just like it was when she was one of the greatest basketball players in the world, when winning championships, not fighting for justice, was her focus. Moore prays with them before heading inside. ON A SUNNY October day in Jefferson City, Missouri, Maya Moore huddles with her family and friends outside the Cole County courthouse. The "30 for 30" documentary on Moore will be available on ESPN+ immediately after the premiere. "Breakaway" premieres July 13 on ESPN at 9 ET. Moore was presented with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at The ESPYS. Maya Moore and Jonathan Irons announced their marriage on Sept. Editor's note: This story was originally published on June 18, 2020.