Missouri Judge Finds that Jonathan Irons Was Wrongfully Convicted

Last October, I did an introductory post about the case of Jonathan Irons, who was 16 years-old when he allegedly broke into the home of Stanley Stotler in Missouri and shot him. Irons was eventually convicted of various crimes connected to the incident and sentenced to 50 years in prison. But then, about 20 years later…WNBA superstar Maya Moore stepped in. Last June, I read a New York Times article about Moore taking a one year sabbatical from the WNBA to work with a legal team to fight to prove Jonathan Irons’s innocence (Moore subsequently extended that sabbatical to a second year). I subsequently reached out to that team, asking if they could use assistance on the case and coverage on the Undisclosed Podcast. They agreed, and I’ve been working on the case for the past five months, with the goal of covering it on the podcast later this year.

Jonathan Irons

But today might mean that we don’t cover the case on Undisclosed…or that we cover it like we covered the Shaurn Thomas case…post-exoneration. That’s because Judge Dan Green issued an order today concluding that Irons’s “defense had provided enough evidence to prove he was wrongfully convicted.” Among that evidence is a fingerprint report regarding latent fingerprints recovered from the point of entry to Stotler’s house. As I noted in my prior post,

With this second report, the defense thus could have argued that (1) it is highly likely the burglar was the source of the other two latent fingerprints; and (2) Irons was not the source of those two latent fingerprints; and (3) Irons was therefore not the burglar.

I concluded in my post that the suppression of this report was a likely Brady violation, and it’s not the only evidence that Irons was wrongfully convicted. I hope that Judge Green’s order stands and that any discussion of these other issues on the podcast or this blog is strictly academic. That said, Missouri Attorney General’s Office could appeal the case to the Western District Court of Appeals in Kansas City and/or the St. Charles County prosecutor’s office could choose to re-prosecute him. If either of these happens, we will definitely cover the case on Undisclosed. Stay tuned…