A federal jury on Thursday ordered The New York Times to pay a former University of Alabama men’s basketball player $9.25 million in damages for falsely reporting that he was at the scene of a murder in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The Times falsely claimed in March 2023 that Kai Spears was in former Alabama basketball star Brandon Miller’s vehicle at the scene of a January 2023 shooting that killed 23-year-old Jamea Harris.
Spears was not in the vehicle.
“We’re disappointed the jury found The Times liable for an honest mistake,” Times spokesman Charlie Stadtander said. “We thank the jury for its service, but believe the verdict and award of damages are contrary to law and not supported by the evidence. We are reviewing our legal options.”
The Times later added an editor’s note acknowledging that the original article had “erroneously identified” Spears as the passenger based on information from a person familiar with the case. The newspaper noted that Alabama’s athletic director and Spears’ father had denied that Spears was present after the article was initially published.
Spears sued the Times in 2023, accusing the newspaper of libel and “false light” invasion of privacy. He argued that the article caused him emotional distress and has permanently linked his name to the murder. On the witness stand, Spears said a day after the article was published, he had been heckled at a game.
Kai Spears of the Alabama Crimson Tide dribbles the ball during a practice session at State Farm Stadium on April 05, 2024 in Glendale, Arizona. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
The eight-person federal jury in Alabama awarded Spears $9.25 million in damages Thursday following a nine-day trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Spears’s attorneys had asked jurors to award him $15 million.
When misinformation about public figures is published, plaintiffs must prove “actual malice,” meaning the misinformation was knowingly included, or the defendant acted with reckless disregard for the truth. Even though Spears was a college basketball player, the court said he was a private figure. Because the court said Spears was a private figure, he only needed to show the claim was false and negligently published.
The Times argued that the article was not defamatory because it had not reported that Spears had been involved in the fatal shooting.
The verdict marked the New York Times’s first loss in a U.S. defamation lawsuit over one of its articles in 50 years, according to the newspaper.
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 information identifying Spears as the person in Miller’s vehicle.
Witz said he trusted his source, who told him the passenger was “a white guy on the basketball team.”
Attorneys for The Times argued that the report was an honest error rather than defamation and said Witz had made significant efforts to verify his reporting.
“There was a mistake, an honest mistake,” said Michael Bell, a lawyer representing The Times.
