Russian judge upholds WNBA star Brittney Griner's 9 year prison sentence – ABC Columbia
(CNN) —A judge in Russia has left Brittney Griner’s verdict in place, upholding on Tuesday the US basketball star’s conviction on drug smuggling charges and reducing only slightly her nine-year prison sentence. Griner’s sentence will be modified to count the time she spent in pretrial detention after her February 17 arrest at a Moscow airport, the judge ruled, with each day in pretrial custody counting as 1.5 days toward her prison sentence. It was not immediately clear exactly how much that would reduce the sentence. The decision came after an appeal hearing Tuesday at which Griner, whom the US considers wrongfully detained, again apologized as she and her attorneys asked the court for a more lenient sentence, arguing the verdict was unfair and unjustified under Russian law. The attorneys urged the court to acquit her, calling her sentence disproportionate and the previous court ruling wrong in saying Griner had criminal intent. “I’ve been here almost eig...