New York Times Found Liable in Defamation Case, Ordered to Pay $9.25 Million to Former Alabama Basketball Player

An Alabama jury found The New York Times liable for defamation Thursday, ordering the news organization to pay $9.25 million to Kai Spears, a former walk-on basketball player at the University of Alabama. The eight-person jury concluded after a nine-day trial that the newspaper had defamed Spears, then 18 years old, through its reporting on a fatal shooting incident.

Spears was incorrectly identified in a March 2023 article by Times sportswriter Billy Witz as a passenger in a vehicle connected to a January 2023 shooting that killed 23-year-old Jamea Harris. The article linked Spears to the incident without properly verifying his involvement, a significant error that the newspaper did not correct until June 2023, after Spears filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

The Times issued a lengthy editor’s note in June acknowledging the misidentification. The correction stated that the article had “erroneously identified” Spears as the person in the car with Crimson Tide star player Brandon Miller when the shooting occurred, and that the actual person present was Cooper Lee, a team student manager.

Witz testified that he relied on a single anonymous source he described as a “high-level person, professional” with access to case materials. The reporter acknowledged on the witness stand that the story contained “a mistake, no question,” according to testimony.

The Times stated it had not lost a defamation lawsuit in the United States over one of its articles in more than 50 years. A company spokesperson told Fox News Digital the outlet was “disappointed” by the verdict and believes it contradicts established law, while indicating the organization is reviewing its legal options.