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The New York Times was defeated in a defamation lawsuit Thursday brought by a former college basketball player and ordered to pay millions in damages.
An Alabama jury ruled that The Times defamed Kai Spears, then an 18-year-old freshman walk-on basketball player for the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide, who was swept up in a 2023 report linking him to a fatal shooting.
After a nine-day trial, the eight-person jury determined that Spears was owed $9.25 million in damages.
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An Alabama jury found that The New York Times defamed former Alabama Crimson Tide basketball player Kai Spears in a 2023 report that linked in him a fatal shooting. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Spears was mentioned in the March 2023 report authored by New York Times sportswriter Billy Witz. Spears was falsely identified as being a passenger in the car at the scene of a January 2023 shooting that resulted in the death of 23-year-old Jamea Harris.
The Times issued a lengthy editor’s note to the report in June 2023, but only after Spears filed the defamation lawsuit at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
“The original version of this article, published March 15, misidentified the person who was in the car with [Crimson Tide star player] Brandon Miller when the shooting occurred,” the note began. “Based on information from a person familiar with the case, the article erroneously identified that person as Kai Spears, a freshman basketball player. 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 note continued, “On Wednesday, Spears filed a defamation suit against The Times that included new details about the incident. Based on that information, editors assigned further reporting, which determined that the other person at the scene was not Spears but Cooper Lee, a student manager for the team. The Times regrets the error in the initial report.”
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The New York Times was ordered by the Alabama jury to pay $9.25 million in damages to Spears. (Yuriy T/iStock)
Witz, who began reporting for The Times in 2008, relied on one anonymous source who claimed Spears was at the scene of the shooting. Witz testified the source was a “high-level person, professional.”
“I think the way I was looking at it, Source A, by their job title and by virtue of their access to the transcript, videos and impound photos, was somebody who knew a lot about this case,” Witz said, according to a local report from The Patch. “In my mind, the story had a focus and this tragedy, as bad as it was, could have been much worse.”
A separate anonymous source had told Witz, “I can tell you it’s a white guy on the basketball team, I just don’t remember his name,” per Witz’s testimony.
According to The Patch, Witz ultimately conceded from the witness stand, “Yes, [the story] had a mistake, no question.”
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The New York Times wrongly identified Kai Spears as being a passenger in the car at the scene of a deadly shootout. (Brandon Sumrall/Getty Images)
The Times noted in its own report about the verdict that it had not lost a defamation lawsuit brought in the United States over one of its articles in more than 50 years.
“We’re disappointed the jury found The Times liable for an honest mistake,” a Times spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “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.”
Spears’ legal team did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
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