Griner's lawyers have argued that her punishment is excessive.
"We continue to insist that, by indiscretion, in a hurry, she packed her suitcase and did not pay attention to the fact that substances allowed for use in the United States ended up in this suitcase and arrived in the Russian Federation," her attorney Alexander Boykov stated, per CNN.
On June 27, Griner opened up about her initial detainment at the airport. She testified that she was forced to sign documents without understanding what they said,. Griner said that she was not read her rights and that she tried to use Google Translate on her phone to understand the documents but"barely knew what was in them," per CNN.
Even though Griner has received a guilty verdict and sentencing, a prisoner swap still could take place. In 2020, for instance, a Russian court similarly sentenced US Marine Trevor R. Reed to nine years in prison, but he was later exchanged in a swap between Russia and the US,The situation has sparked outrage among her family,, fans, human-rights organizations, and more. The #FreeBrittneyGriner movement has emerged on social media.