Way Moore Justice Support was born out of the “Free Yahya Moore” campaign, a grassroots, community-based, post-conviction defense approach that Tricia Way and Yahya Moore launched in the spring of 2022. They designed it to support Moore in his fight to overturn his wrongful conviction by intentionally and restoratively building connection among his supporters and his attorneys, who otherwise operated in isolation from one another in a PCRA process that wears on the human spirit.

In early 2022, Moore was in his 26th year of serving a life without parole sentence for a crime he did not commit. Although Moore was inside prison, Way and Moore co-designed each element of the campaign together. It included:

• restorative community building circles with Moore’s attorneys and a core group of his supporters;

• a letter-writing campaign to the District Attorney’s Office;

• email and social media about Moore’s innocence, court dates, and summary proceedings;

• courtroom presence and solidarity at each of Moore’s hearings;

• contact with potential employers and reentry organizations to plan for successful reentry

• crowdsourced funds to assist with Moore’s transition home.

The campaign was successful. We created a restorative sense of community and solidarity among Moore, his legal team, and his growing number of supporters. We identified ways each of us could provide or receive support in the 16-month-long process. Moore’s life without parole sentence was vacated, and he walked out of SCI-Phoenix on July 11, 2023!

We instantly knew that more people in the PCRA process needed this restorative justice approach to help fight the injustices of wrongful convictions...And Way Moore Justice Support was born.