The New York Times was dealt a major courtroom defeat Thursday after an Alabama jury found the newspaper defamed former University of Alabama basketball player Kai Spears and ordered it to pay him $9.25 million in damages.
Spears was an 18-year-old freshman walk-on for the Crimson Tide when a March 2023 Times report wrongly identified him as being present at the scene of a deadly shooting that killed 23-year-old Jamea Harris.
After a nine-day trial, an eight-person jury sided with Spears and found the Times liable for defamation.
The verdict marked a rare and costly loss for the newspaper, which acknowledged in its own coverage that it had not lost a U.S. defamation case involving one of its articles in more than 50 years.
The disputed article was written by longtime Times sports reporter Billy Witz, who relied heavily on an anonymous source while reporting on the January 2023 shooting.
Spears was falsely identified as a passenger in the car with Alabama star Brandon Miller at the scene.
The Times did not fully correct the report until after Spears filed his federal defamation lawsuit.
In a June 2023 editor’s note, the newspaper acknowledged the error.
“The original version of this article, published March 15, misidentified the person who was in the car with [Crimson Tide star player] Brandon Miller when the shooting occurred,” the note began.
“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.
An Alabama jury just ordered The New York Times to pay $9.25 million to former University of Alabama basketball player Kai Spears after the paper falsely identified him as being at the scene of a fatal shooting.
Spears was an 18-year-old freshman walk-on when a 2023 Times report… pic.twitter.com/9Td4xdbsXR
— Fox News Flash (@FoxNews_Flash) August 21, 2026
“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.”
Testimony at trial showed Witz relied on one anonymous source who claimed Spears was present at the scene.
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Witz described that person as a “high-level person, professional.”
“I think the way I was looking at it, Source A, by their job title and by virtue of their access to the transcript, videos and impound photos, was somebody who knew a lot about this case,” Witz testified, according to The Tuscaloosa Patch.
“In my mind, the story had a focus, and this tragedy, as bad as it was, could have been much worse.”
A second anonymous source offered far less certainty, according to testimony.
“I can tell you it’s a White guy on the basketball team, I just don’t remember his name,” that source told Witz.
Despite the uncertainty and denials from Spears’ father and Alabama’s athletic director, the Times initially stood by its reporting before later determining that Spears had been wrongly identified.
Witz ultimately acknowledged the obvious problem from the witness stand.
“Yes, the story had a mistake, no question.”
The jury’s decision now leaves the Times facing a multimillion-dollar judgment over an error involving an innocent college athlete who was tied publicly to a homicide scene he was not at.
The newspaper blasted the verdict and signaled it may challenge the outcome.
“We’re disappointed the jury found The Times liable for an honest mistake,” a Times spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “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.”
The case is an embarrassing blow for one of the country’s most powerful legacy media outlets and comes amid growing scrutiny over whether major news organizations are being held accountable when serious reporting errors damage the reputations of private citizens.
For Spears, the jury’s $9.25 million verdict represents a sweeping legal victory more than three years after he was wrongly dragged into coverage of a deadly crime.
