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Opinion
Stephen L. Carter

Brittney Griner Is Home. Next Up Should Be Paul Whelan.

The WNBA star’s return is well worth celebrating. Let’s hope there’s more good news to come.

Cherelle Griner has tirelessly advocated for her wife’s release.

Cherelle Griner has tirelessly advocated for her wife’s release.

Photographer: Adam Schultz/The White House/Getty Images North America

We can all rejoice at the news that Russia has freed basketball star Brittney Griner. Griner was detained at a Moscow airport in February, after officials found in her luggage 0.7 ounces of hashish oil, for which she had a doctor’s note. She was later convicted of possession and smuggling, and sentenced to nine years in prison and sent to a penal colony. That she’s on the way home is wonderful, even if the price was the release of the egregious arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Here are four things I’d like to see next: