If Brittney Griner is going to return to the U.S. anytime soon, it almost certainly will happen via a prisoner exchange.
The jailed American basketball star exhausted the last of her legal options on Tuesday when her last-gasp appeal predictably went nowhere.
A Moscow regional court upheld Griner’s August conviction on charges of drug possession and drug smuggling with criminal intent. The court rejected arguments from Griner’s defense attorneys that her nine-year prison sentence was excessive and unjustified under Russian law.
Griner participated in Tuesday’s appeal hearing via video call from behind the white bars of her jail cell at a detention center outside Moscow.