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Brittney Griner

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 9:41 am
by wpmiller42
Figured this was more appropriate in the Politics thread, but Griner was just sentenced to 9 years in Russian prison. Hope we find a way to bring her home soon:

https://www.espn.com/wnba/story/_/id/34 ... -smuggling

So stupid that these women's basketball players have to go overseas to supplement their WNBA income here. And dumb that it put Griner in this situation to be politically targeted by a racist, homophobic regime.

Re: Brittney Griner

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 10:47 am
by Split T
9 years in prison? Wow, hopefully we can work out a deal. Is that typical in Russia for first time weed offenses?

Re: Brittney Griner

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 11:09 am
by Nodack
Drug policy of the Soviet Union
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_poli ... viet_Union
Regulation[edit]
Legislation against drugs first appeared in post-revolutionary Russia, in Article 104-d of the 1922 Penal Code of the RSFSR,[14] criminalising drug production, trafficking, and possession with intent to traffic. The 1924 Soviet Constitution expanded this legislation to cover the whole Soviet Union.[15] The 1926 Penal Code of the RSFSR suggested imprisonment or corrective labour for between one and three years as punishment for these offences, depending on the scale of the offence committed. Drug possession without intention to traffic and the personal use of drugs warranted no penalties at this time.

Drug regulation remained largely untouched in the Soviet Union until 1974, when the Supreme Soviet issued a Decree entitled 'On Reinforcement of the Fight Against Drug Addiction'.[16] This Decree was reproduced in Article 224 of the Penal Codes of all the Republics of the USSR, and not only increased the penalties for the offences mentioned above to between ten and fifteen years' imprisonment, but for the first time criminalised possession of drugs without intent to traffic, bringing a penalty of up to three years in prison. Additional offences of 'seducing another person to narcotic drugs', punishable by up to five years' imprisonment, and the theft of narcotics, punishable by between five and fifteen years' imprisonment, were also created. The term 'narcotics' used here referred to all drugs listed by UN Conventions, not just opiates.[1]

A further decree issued in 1987 made a conviction for the above offences within a year of an earlier conviction for the same violation of the law liable to punishment of up to two years' imprisonment or corrective labor. Sergei Lebedev, the Chairman of the Association of Independent Advocates in Leningrad at the time, argued that the steady escalation of criminal penalties for drug use was "indicative of the Soviet authorities’ resignation to their complete inability to solve drug problems in a constructive and humane way".[17]

Re: Brittney Griner

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 11:28 am
by Superbone
Seems fair.

Re: Brittney Griner

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 11:44 am
by AmareIsGod

Re: Brittney Griner

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 11:45 am
by AmareIsGod
Fuck Russia. Garbage fucking country with bullshit laws. Have some THC in a cartridge that is doctor prescribed? 10 years in prison for you!

Re: Brittney Griner

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 11:52 am
by Split T
So it seems like where Russia really screwed her is with the intent to distribute stuff. She obviously isn’t dealing drugs and that turns a 3 year max sentence into a 10 year one.

Re: Brittney Griner

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 12:10 pm
by Nodack
We are pretty much at war with Russia. I’m surprised she didn’t get life.

Re: Brittney Griner

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 12:10 pm
by Superbone
Nodack wrote:
Thu Aug 04, 2022 12:10 pm
We are pretty much at war with Russia. I’m surprised she didn’t get life.
Or even execution.

Re: Brittney Griner

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 12:14 pm
by Indy
Split T wrote:
Thu Aug 04, 2022 10:47 am
9 years in prison? Wow, hopefully we can work out a deal. Is that typical in Russia for first time weed offenses?
For black gay women Americans?

Re: Brittney Griner

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 12:25 pm
by Nodack
4 strikes.

Re: Brittney Griner

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 12:26 pm
by Split T
Indy wrote:
Thu Aug 04, 2022 12:14 pm
Split T wrote:
Thu Aug 04, 2022 10:47 am
9 years in prison? Wow, hopefully we can work out a deal. Is that typical in Russia for first time weed offenses?
For black gay women Americans?
Ya that was mostly what I was implying, I’m assuming the sentence was very much situation based. I doubt a typical Russian would have gotten that sentence

Re: Brittney Griner

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 1:19 pm
by Cap
Superbone wrote:
Thu Aug 04, 2022 12:10 pm
Nodack wrote:
Thu Aug 04, 2022 12:10 pm
We are pretty much at war with Russia. I’m surprised she didn’t get life.
Or even execution.
Is execution worse than life in a Russian prison?

Re: Brittney Griner

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 2:04 pm
by JeremyG
Yes, it's an awful sentence. But there are people serving similar sentences right here in the USA for similar victimless "crimes." Where is the outrage about it happening in our very own country?

Re: Brittney Griner

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 3:23 pm
by Superbone
JeremyG wrote:
Thu Aug 04, 2022 2:04 pm
Yes, it's an awful sentence. But there are people serving similar sentences right here in the USA for similar victimless "crimes." Where is the outrage about it happening in our very own country?
Yeah, but they’re not well known celebrities.

Re: Brittney Griner

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 3:47 pm
by AmareIsGod
JeremyG wrote:
Thu Aug 04, 2022 2:04 pm
Yes, it's an awful sentence. But there are people serving similar sentences right here in the USA for similar victimless "crimes." Where is the outrage about it happening in our very own country?
Good point. They'll do an exchange, the outrage will subside, and people will go on, business as usual, while our prison system continues to balloon with petty crime, individual drug use crimes. The same prisons that aren't there to rehabilitate but instead there to profit.

Re: Brittney Griner

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 4:16 pm
by Indy
If we didn't lock up people for victimless crimes, who will we enslave to work for 10% of minimum wage while the prison gets to collect the full wage?

Re: Brittney Griner

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2022 7:50 pm
by Nodack
They made pot legal in many states. Hard to incarcerate someone for having pot when it’s legal. That is new in the US in the past decade.

Re: Brittney Griner

Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2022 10:44 am
by Nodack
Lavrov says Russia is ready to discuss prisoner swap with US after Griner conviction
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/05/europe/g ... index.html
The US and Russia have indicated they are ready to hold talks over a prisoner swap, a day after basketball star Brittney Griner was convicted of drug smuggling and sentenced to nine years in prison for carrying less than a gram of cannabis oil through a Moscow airport.