An Alabama jury determined on Thursday, August 20 that former Alabama men’s basketball player Kai Spears was defamed by The New York Times for an article that inaccurately linked him to the scene of a fatal shooting.
As part of the ruling, which came after five hours of deliberation and two weeks of testimony in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Spears was awarded $9.25 million in damages.
In March 2023, the newspaper reported that Spears, a walk-on that season for the top-ranked Crimson Tide, was in the passenger seat of former Alabama star and current Charlotte Hornets forward Brandon Miller’s car during the deadly shooting of Jamea Harris in Tuscaloosa. It was later revealed that the passenger in the car was a team manager, not Spears.
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Spears filed a lawsuit against the outlet for defamation and “false light” invasion of privacy, claiming it caused him emotional distress for linking his name to a high-profile murder. The Times later issued a correction and added an editor’s note following Spears’ lawsuit.
According to the Times, it’s the first defamation lawsuit the newspaper had lost in the United States over one of its articles in more than 50 years.
Much of the case centered around the Times’ use of anonymous sourcing for its original story and its process for verifying the information it received. The Birmingham, Alabama attorney representing the newspaper described the incorrect reporting as “an honest mistake.”
Former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles, who played for the Crimson Tide from 2020-23, and his childhood friend, Michael Lynn Davis, were ultimately charged with capital murder in connection to Harris’ death. Davis was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Spears’ father, Christian, a longtime college athletics administrator who was most recently the athletic director at Marshall, told Patch that the family was grateful for the verdict.
“Our goal was a simple retraction from The New York Times,” Christian Spears said to 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. The Alabama jury made it clear to the New York Times that they were wrong to do what they did.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY Sports: Former Alabama basketball player Kai Spears wins defamation case against New York Times
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