An Alabama jury has ordered The New York Times to pay $9.25 million to a former University of Alabama basketball player after the newspaper incorrectly reported that he was present at the scene of a high-profile murder.
The verdict came more than three years after the Times identified Kai Spears, then a walk-on for the Crimson Tide, as the passenger in basketball star Brandon Miller’s vehicle around the time Jamea Harris was fatally shot in Tuscaloosa in January 2023.
Spears wasn’t the passenger.
According to USA Today, the person in the vehicle was an Alabama basketball team manager.
That error ultimately became the basis for Spears’ lawsuit accusing the Times of defamation and false-light invasion of privacy. Spears said that being publicly associated with a murder caused him emotional distress.
The Times later published a correction and editor’s note, but the case proceeded to trial, where the newspaper argued that the incorrect identification had been an “honest mistake.”
The Alabama jury concluded that the mistake was costly.
After hearing evidence about the newspaper’s anonymous sourcing and the process used to verify the passenger’s identity, jurors awarded Spears $9.25 million.
According to the Times, the decision represented the newspaper’s first loss in a U.S. defamation lawsuit in more than 50 years.
Spears’ father, Christian Spears, said the family originally wanted something considerably simpler than a multimillion-dollar courtroom battle.
“Our goal was a simple retraction from The New York Times,” he told Patch.
“Instead, the Times defended its inaccurate article and continued to distort facts rather than acknowledge the harm they caused, acting as if its power made it untouchable,” he continued. “The Alabama jury made it clear to The New York Times that they were wrong to do what they did.”
The location of the case carries a remarkable bit of legal history.
More than six decades ago, another Alabama defamation dispute involving the Times produced one of the most important First Amendment decisions in American history: New York Times Co. v. Sullivan.
The Supreme Court’s 1964 ruling established the demanding “actual malice” standard for public officials pursuing defamation claims. Under that standard, such plaintiffs generally must demonstrate that a defamatory falsehood was published with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard for whether it was true.
Spears’ case was different.
The court determined that his status as a college basketball player did not make him a public figure for purposes of the dispute. As a private figure, he did not face the same actual-malice threshold and could pursue his claim under the applicable negligence standard.
That distinction proved crucial.
The Times did eventually correct its report, but a correction does not necessarily erase whatever reputational or emotional damage an erroneous story has already caused. The jury was tasked with determining whether the original reporting was legally actionable and, if so, what compensation Spears should receive.
It returned a $9.25 million answer.
The verdict also arrives while major news organizations are confronting several other prominent lawsuits and settlements.
President Donald Trump has a separate $15 billion defamation lawsuit pending against The New York Times, alleging that its coverage was intended to damage his reputation and 2024 presidential campaign. The merits and legal standards involved in Trump’s case are separate from those decided in Spears’ lawsuit.
Trump has also reached major settlements in other media disputes.
ABC News agreed in December 2024 to resolve litigation stemming from comments George Stephanopoulos made concerning the civil verdicts involving Trump and writer E. Jean Carroll. CBS parent Paramount later settled Trump’s lawsuit over the editing of a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump also reached settlements with major technology companies over the suspension of his social-media accounts following Jan. 6, 2021, though those cases concerned platform access rather than defamation.
For the Times, the Spears verdict stands on its own.
