{"id":35754,"date":"2023-02-01T19:46:36","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T01:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/?p=35754"},"modified":"2023-02-01T19:46:36","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T01:46:36","slug":"brittney-griners-journey-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2023\/02\/01\/brittney-griners-journey-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Brittney Griner’s Journey Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

On February 17, 2022, now 32-year-old WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) star, Brittney Griner, <\/span>was detained <\/span>for possessing cannabis oil<\/span><\/a> in her luggage after arriving in Moscow from New York City. She was released on December 8 of this past year.<\/span><\/p>\n

During the WNBA off-season, the Phoenix Mercury star plays for UMMC Ekaterinburg, a Russian basketball team. Upon Griner’s arrival at Sheremetyevo International Airport, a customs dog indicated that there were drugs in her carry-on bag. After searching Griner’s bag, officers discovered vape cartridges containing cannabis oil. She was taken into Russian <\/span>custody<\/span><\/a> and charged with smuggling “narcotic drugs” into the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

On March 17, 2022, Griner was ordered to remain in <\/span>custody <\/span><\/a>for an additional two months. Her detainment was <\/span>extended<\/span><\/a> for another month on May 13, after she had made a brief appearance in court, and once again <\/span>on June 15,<\/span><\/a> Griner’s lawyer, however, reported the trial was set for July 1. Meanwhile, fellow athletes including <\/span>Lebron James<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Megan Rapinoe<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Stephen Curry<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Charles Barkley<\/span><\/a> and<\/span> Sue Bird<\/span><\/a> voiced support, while the House passed a bipartisan <\/span>resolution <\/span><\/a>pushing Russia for her release.<\/span><\/p>\n

After a long, arduous, and emotional trial, on August 4, Griner was sentenced to <\/span>9 years<\/span><\/a> in prison on charges of smuggling drugs into the country. Griner’s <\/span>lawyers <\/span><\/a>said the verdict was “absolutely unreasonable” and said they will “certainly file an appeal.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

On August 15, the appeal for Griner’s <\/span>verdict<\/span><\/a> began, but a month later, on October 25th, the appeal was <\/span>denied <\/span><\/a>and the verdict remained. On November 17, Griner’s lawyers confirmed that she had been moved to IK-2 female penal colony in a small town about seven hours from Moscow. Former prisoners and human rights activists said the prison where Griner was placed was infamous for its<\/span> cruel treatment of female inmates<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

On December 8, Griner was released after nearly 10 months in Russian custody. She was released in agreement to a <\/span>one-on-one prisoner swap deal<\/span><\/a> for international arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was sentenced to be in a US prison until 2029. “Moments ago I spoke to Brittney Griner. She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home,” Biden <\/span>tweeted<\/span><\/a> the morning of the announcement alongside photographs of himself, Vice President Kamala Harris and Griner’s wife, Cherelle.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On February 17, 2022, now 32-year-old WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association) star, Brittney Griner, was detained for possessing cannabis oil in her luggage after arriving…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":806,"featured_media":35755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2724],"tags":[2639,2215,3116,1668],"coauthors":[3969],"class_list":["post-35754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-basketball","tag-drugs","tag-girls-basketball","tag-russia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/806"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35754"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35777,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35754\/revisions\/35777"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35754"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=35754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}