An Alabama jury ordered the New York Times to pay $9.25 million to former University of Alabama basketball player Kai Spears for falsely placing him at the scene of a fatal shooting — the first defamation verdict against the paper in over 50 years, and proof that the establishment press can be held to account when someone has the resources to fight.
The Times built its reputation on speaking truth to power. This time, power spoke back. An eight-member federal jury in Tuscaloosa found the Times liable on claims of defamation and false light/invasion of privacy after a nine-day trial and roughly five hours of deliberation. The verdict ends a streak the Times itself reported with some discomfort: the paper had not lost a defamation lawsuit over its articles in the United States in more than half a century.
The facts are damning. In March 2023, Times reporter Billy Witz published a story citing a single anonymous source who said the person in a car at the scene of the January 2023 shooting that killed 23-year-old mother Jamea Harris was "a white guy on the basketball team." The source didn't provide a name. Witz named Spears anyway.
Spears immediately denied it. "The report in the New York Times was 100% inaccurate and the writer had complete disregard for the truth," Spears wrote on social media, as CBS News reported. His father and the university's athletic department backed him up. The Times updated the article with the denials — and then stood behind the story.
For two months, the Gray Lady refused to correct the record. It took a lawsuit, filed May 30, 2023, to move them. Two days after Spears sued, the Times finally issued an editor's note acknowledging the person in the car was not Spears but a team manager who was not implicated or charged in the shooting.
On the witness stand, Witz apologized to Spears. He said he had been confident in his source and had tried to confirm with others before a person told him the car's occupant was "a white guy on the basketball team" — without recalling the name. The damage was already done. Spears was booed at the next game. He endured death threats. His grades slipped. His lawsuit said the Times's "false statements will be associated with him for the rest of his life."
The Times doesn't see it that way. "We're disappointed the jury found The Times liable for an honest mistake," spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said in a statement, calling the verdict "contrary to law and not supported by the evidence." The paper is reviewing its legal options.
An "honest mistake" that took a federal lawsuit to correct. Spears's father, Christian, told the Tuscaloosa Patch the family's goal was simple: "a retraction from The New York Times. 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."
Attorney Matt Glover said he believes "this verdict will improve journalism throughout the country." Maybe — but Alabama law caps jury awards in certain cases, and the Times reported the damages will be reduced by more than $2 million.
The open question: how many others has the Times smeared who couldn't afford to sue? A half-century without a defamation loss doesn't mean a half-century without defamation. It means a half-century of victims who couldn't match the Gray Lady's legal war chest. Spears fought. Most can't.
