Jury rules N.Y. Times defamed Bama hoops player
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- Kai Spears won a $9.25 million defamation verdict against The New York Times after a Tuscaloosa jury found the paper wrongly named him as a passenger in a car involved in a fatal January 2023 shooting.
- The New York Times issued an editor's note correcting the error days after publication, calling it an "honest mistake"; spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said the verdict was "contrary to law and not supported by the evidence."
- The eight-person jury delivered its decision after a nine-day trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama; Spears' attorney Matt Glover said the verdict will "improve journalism throughout the country."
- The January 2023 Tuscaloosa shooting killed a 23-year-old mother and involved three other Alabama basketball players; Spears claimed the inaccurate reporting tied him permanently to a murder and caused emotional distress.
- The New York Times had not lost a U.S. defamation suit over one of its own articles in more than 50 years before this verdict, and the paper said it is reviewing its legal options to challenge the ruling.
Why it matters: A jury's $9.25 million defamation verdict against The New York Times marks the paper's first such U.S. defeat on a single article in over 50 years, and with the Times reviewing legal options on a ruling it calls "contrary to law," the case tests the concrete consequences — financial and reputational — that flow from misidentifying individuals via anonymous-source reporting.
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