A federal jury on Thursday ordered The New York Times to pay $9.25 million in damages to a former University of Alabama menâs basketball player after the newspaper falsely reported that he was present at the scene of a murder in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The verdict caps a nine-day trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, where an eight-person jury found that the Times defamed Kai Spears in a March 2023 article. The article incorrectly claimed Spears was a passenger in a vehicle driven by former Alabama basketball star Brandon Miller at the time of a January 2023 shooting that killed 23-year-old Jamea Harris.
Spears was not in the vehicle. The actual passenger was Alabama basketball manager Cooper Lee.
The Times later appended an editorâs note to the article, acknowledging that it had âerroneously identifiedâ Spears as the passenger, based on information from a person familiar with the case. The note also said that Alabamaâs athletic director and Spearsâs father had denied Spearsâs presence after the article was published.
Spears filed suit in 2023, accusing the Times of libel and âfalse lightâ invasion of privacy. He argued that the article caused him emotional distress and permanently linked his name to the murder.
His attorneys had asked jurors to award $15 million; the jury settled on $9.25 million.
According to the Times, the verdict marks its first loss in a U.S. defamation lawsuit over one of its articles in 50 years.
During the trial, Times sportswriter Billy Witz, who wrote the 2023 article, apologized to Spears from the witness stand. Witz had relied on a confidential source for the erroneous identification.
Attorneys for the Times argued that the report was an honest error rather than defamation, and noted Witzâs efforts to verify his reporting.
âThis is a case of an honest mistake,â a Times attorney told jurors during closing arguments Thursday.
The jury disagreed, delivering a verdict that reverberates beyond the specific case, raising questions about media accountability in high-stakes reporting.
The case centered on a particularly sensitive context: a murder that drew intense public attention. The false report not only misidentified Spears but also placed him in a scene of violent crime, a stigma that his lawyers argued would follow him indefinitely.
Spearsâs legal team characterized the Timesâs reporting as reckless, pointing to the newspaperâs failure to confirm a crucial detail from a single anonymous source before publication.
The Times, for its part, maintained that the error was a mistake made in good faith, and that Witz had taken steps to corroborate the information before the article ran.
But the juryâs award suggests they found the newspaperâs conduct fell short of journalistic standards, at least in this instance.
The verdict is notable for its size and symbolism. A $9.25 million judgment is substantial for a defamation case, but the historical significance â the Timesâ first such loss in 50 years â is what makes this case stand out.
It is a reminder that even the most established news organizations can face serious legal consequences for reporting errors, especially when those errors damage an individualâs reputation.
The case also underscores the tension between the need for speed in breaking news and the responsibility to get facts right.
For Spears, the verdict may bring a measure of vindication, but the emotional and reputational harm he says he suffered cannot be undone by a monetary award alone.
The Times has not yet announced whether it will appeal the decision.
Source: www.dailywire.com â https://www.dailywire.com/news/nyt-ordered-to-pay-millions-to-college-athlete-in-defamation-judgement