Jury SLAMS Times Over Botched ID

A federal jury hit the New York Times with a $9.25 million defamation verdict for wrongly placing a college athlete at a fatal shooting scene, spotlighting how one newsroom error can upend a life and public trust.

Story Highlights

A jury awarded Kai Spears $9.25 million after a nine-day trial.
The New York Times misidentified Spears as present at a fatal shooting.
The paper issued an editor’s note admitting the mistake months later.
The Times says it made an honest error and plans legal options.

What the Jury Decided and Why It Matters

A federal jury in Alabama found that the New York Times defamed former Alabama basketball player Kai Spears and awarded $9.25 million in damages after a nine-day trial. Jurors concluded the paper wrongly linked Spears to a fatal shooting scene in Tuscaloosa, a claim that followed him online and off. This verdict signals a rare but serious loss for a major news outlet. It also shows how mistaken identity cases can cut through legal defenses when harm feels concrete to everyday people.

The judgment comes in Spears v. The New York Times Company, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, case no. 7:23-cv-00692. The case survived an early motion to dismiss, which allowed defamation and related claims to move forward to discovery and trial. The jury’s award is notable in size, though the public record does not yet break down compensatory and punitive amounts. Appeals are likely, which could change the final outcome and the dollars at stake.

How the Error Happened and Was Corrected

The March 2023 article identified Spears as being in a car connected to the shooting, which was false, according to the trial record and reporting on the verdict. The New York Times later published an editor’s note saying the story misidentified the person and explained that the error came from a person familiar with the case. Reporting indicates the paper reviewed its work after denials from Spears’s father and the university’s athletic director, but did not correct the story at that time.

During the trial, the reporter, Billy Witz, acknowledged the mistake and apologized to Spears from the witness stand, saying he wanted to own it. Patch reported testimony that the newsroom did not consult its standards department before publication, while also stating editors felt confident when publishing the piece. Spears testified about the personal fallout, including harassment and distress after the false link spread online, which likely weighed on the jury when assessing harm.

The Times’ Response and the Road Ahead

After the verdict, the New York Times said it respected the jury’s service but believed the decision and the size of damages were not supported by the evidence, calling the error an honest mistake. The paper’s emphasis on unintentional error reflects a broader media stance: not every serious error should equal legal liability. That position often matters on appeal, where courts focus on fault standards, context, and the proof of actual harm in the record.

Ex-Alabama guard Kai Spears won a $9.25 million verdict against the New York Times, the outlet’s first loss in a defamation suit in 50 years.

— Front Office Sports (@FOS) August 21, 2026

The bigger picture stretches beyond one athlete and one outlet. Most media libel cases do not end with plaintiff wins after appeals, but mistaken identity claims stand out because they are simple for juries to grasp and easy to view as harmful. This case taps a shared public worry: powerful institutions can make errors that ordinary people pay for. When corrections come late, trust drops fast, and both left and right see a system that protects the elite more than the individual.