During her visit on Cam Newton‘s “Funky Friday” podcast, Brittney Griner spoke candidly about her experience in a Russian prison starting in February 2022. The former quarterback then admitted that he, too, had been imprisoned.
The 10-time All-Star recounted various stories and insights about her arrest and the harsh conditions she faced while being imprisoned for 10 months. She began by explaining that she was apprehended at a Moscow airport when THC vape cartridges were discovered in her luggage. Despite being prescribed medical cannabis in Arizona for pain relief, it is prohibited in Russia.
Following her arrest, she endured several months in a cell that lacked “a shower, toilet paper, and a toothbrush.” To cope, she wrote in a sudoku puzzle book she had prior to her arrest. “I noted the date and my feelings about what was happening,” she mentioned.
Fortunately, her imprisonment turned out to be shorter than she had feared, despite her lawyers presenting potential sentences like “10 or 15”: “I was thinking, ‘Wait, are you telling me years? Like, 10 or 15 years?'” Brittney recalled in shock. “Yeah, I got that sense. I felt ill, thinking, ‘There’s no way this is happening.’ My lawyer reassured me, saying, ‘Don’t worry, don’t panic.'”
Griner spent 10 months in pretrial detention and was accused of drug trafficking for criminal purposes, ultimately receiving a nine-year prison sentence. The US government stood by her and facilitated a deal with Russia, proposing a trade: Brittney in exchange for Viktor Bout, an arms dealer. After the exchange, Griner returned home to Texas with her family and wife.
