Brittney Griner, the WNBA star who spent nearly 10 months in a Russian prison two years ago, said she considered suicide during her incarceration in the foreign country.
“I did. I didn’t think I could get through what I needed to get through,” Griner said during an exclusive ABC News report on 20/20, which aired Wednesday. She said considering how her loved ones would react to her death made her dismiss those thoughts and instead think, “I have to endure this.”
Griner was convicted on drug charges and sentenced to nine years in prison after Russian authorities found vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage. Griner, who had been detained in Russia since February 2022, pled guilty to bringing hashish oil into Russia. She told the judge that she “inadvertently” traveled with the cartridges but was shown no mercy in Russia’s dealings with her.
In the emotional interview, Griner described her grim living conditions.
“Mornings, we’re going to have really thick porridge, but it’s not really porridge; it’s more like cement because it’s really thick and hard. Dinner, we get a little piece of fish with nothing but bones in it. I didn’t fit anything in there,” she explained. “The mattress had a huge blood stain on it. And they give you these thin two sheets, so you’re basically laying on bars. The middle of my shin to my feet stuck through the bars, which, in prison, you don’t really wanna stick your leg and arm through bars because someone can go up and grab it, break it, twist it, and that’s what was going through my mind,” Griner said.
The athlete was released from a Russian prison in a one-for-one prisoner swap for international arms dealer Viktor Bout. Bout was sentenced to 25 years in U.S. prison in 2012 on charges of conspiring to kill Americans, acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles, and provide material support to a terrorist organization.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine arose just one week into Griner’s detainment. The basketball star said she’d given up hope for a safe return home.
“When I found out that the invasion happened, I literally thought I was never coming home,” Griner said.
