Maya Moore, Jonathan Irons Speak on Overturned Conviction for Burglary, Assault

One day after Jonathan Irons was freed from prison, he appeared on Good Morning America alongside WNBA star Maya Moore to discuss getting his 1998 conviction overturned. 

In an interview with Robin Roberts, Irons described his emotional state as "elated and thankful to be here in this moment right now."

Moore, who announced last year she was putting her WNBA career on hold, said she felt "thankful that we had made it" after working as part of the team fighting to get Irons' conviction overturned. 

Per Kurt Streeter of the New York Times, Moore and Irons first met before her freshman year at Connecticut through a prison ministry in 2007 during a penitentiary visit. 

According to Streeter, Missouri judge Daniel Green said in overturning Irons' conviction that the case against him was "very weak and circumstantial at best."

Speaking to Katie Barnes of espnW.com, Irons' attorney Kent Gipson said, "Until Maya Moore got involved, [Irons] just really didn't have the resources to either hire counsel or hire investigators."

Missouri judge Daniel Green overturned Irons' conviction in March. Irons was released from prison on Wednesday when St. Charles County lead prosecutor Tim Lohmar declined a retrial after state attorney general Eric Schmitt lost two appeals. 

In September 2019, Moore told the Associated Press she was using her time away from the court "to call attention to the prosecutorial misconduct that I believe resulted in his [Irons'] being wrongfully sent to prison for 50 years as a teenager."

Moore told Streeter in January she was going to sit out the 2020 WNBA season to continue working on social justice reform.