NYT ordered to pay $9.25M in defamation verdict

An Alabama federal jury has ordered The New York Times to pay $9.25 million in damages to former University of Alabama basketball player Kai Spears, finding the newspaper liable for defamation in a case that marks its first such loss in more than 50 years. The verdict was delivered on Thursday, August 20, 2026, following a nine-day trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

The lawsuit stemmed from a March 15, 2023, article written by Times sports reporter Billy Witz. The report, covering the January 2023 fatal shooting of 23-year-old Jamea Harris in Tuscaloosa, erroneously identified Spears as a passenger in a car present at the scene. Spears, then an 18-year-old freshman walk-on for the Crimson Tide, was not there. The person actually in the car was a student manager for the basketball team.

Trial testimony revealed that Witz relied on a single anonymous source he described as a "high-level person, professional." A second anonymous source offered less certainty, telling the reporter only that the individual was a "white guy on the basketball team." Despite immediate denials from Spears's father and Alabama's athletic director shortly after...