The New York Times was ordered on Thursday to pay $9.25 million to Kai Spears, a former University of Alabama basketball player, after an eight-person jury found the newspaper defamed him in a March 2023 report.
An Alabama jury ruled that Spears, then an 18-year-old freshman walk-on for the Crimson Tide, was wrongly identified in the article by sportswriter Billy Witz as being a passenger in a car at the site of a fatal January 2023 shooting. The shooting resulted in the death of Jamea Harris, 23.
Following the jury's nine-day trial verdict, Spears was awarded $9.25 million in damages. The New York Times issued an editor's note about the report in June 2023, after Spears filed his defamation lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. The note acknowledged that the initial report had misidentified the person in the car with Crimson Tide star player Brandon Miller when the shooting occurred.
"Based on information from a person familiar with the case, the article erroneously identified that person as Kai Spears, a freshman basketball player," the editor's note stated. "After the article was initially published, Alabama’s athletic director and Spears’s father denied that Spears was present. The Times included those responses and reviewed its reporting, but did not conclude that any other change to the article was warranted at that time."
The newspaper later conducted further reporting, which determined that the other individual present was not Spears but Cooper Lee, a student manager for the team. "The Times regrets the error in the initial report," the note added.
During the trial, Witz testified that he relied on one anonymous source described as a "high-level person, professional" with access to case materials. Witz also stated that a separate anonymous source had told him it was a "White guy on the basketball team" but the name was not recalled. Witz ultimately conceded from the witness stand that the story contained a mistake.
The New York Times has stated it is reviewing its legal options. A spokesperson told Fox News Digital, "We’re disappointed the jury found The Times liable for an honest mistake. 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."
The Times noted in its own report on the verdict that it had not lost a defamation suit over an article in the United States in more than 50 years.