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Former Alabama basketball player Kai Spears has been awarded $9.25 million by a Tuscaloosa jury after he sued the New York Times for defamation for falsely identifying him as a passenger in a car at the site of a fatal shooting.
In January 2023, 23-year-old Jamea Harris was killed in a shooting. Former Alabama basketball player Darius Miles was accused of “aiding and abetting” the alleged shooter, Michael Davis, who has since been convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison. Miles’s case is currently awaiting trial. Former Alabama basketball player Brandon Miller, now an NBA star, was also at the scene but was not charged.
In March 2023, the Times wrote a story that falsely alleged Spears was at the scene. Spears sued the outlet later that year and was awarded the $9.25 million in damages on Thursday following a nine-day trial.
“We’re disappointed the jury found The Times liable for an honest mistake,” a New York Times spokesperson told Front Office Sports in a statement. “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.”
Attorneys for Spears did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
After Spears sued, the Times issued a lengthy correction at the top of its story.
“The original version of this article, published March 15, misidentified the person who was in the car with Brandon Miller when the shooting occurred,” the correction said.
“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. 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.”
According to a report from Patch in Tuscaloosa, Times writer Billy Witz, the author of the story that misidentified Spears, testified that a “high-level person, professional [whom it was] very easy to understand why that person would not want their name public” told him that Spears was at the scene.
Nevertheless, Witz ultimately admitted he had gotten it wrong. “Yes, [the story] had a mistake, no question,” he said, according to Patch.
Public figures rarely win defamation cases against media outlets. It has been more than 50 years since the Times lost one a defamation suit.
