New York Times ordered to pay $9.25 million for defaming Alabama basketball player

In the United States, an Alabama jury awarded $9.25 million in damages to Kai Spears, a former University of Alabama basketball player, after finding The New York Times defamed him. The case stemmed from a March 2023 article that falsely identified Spears as being at the scene of a fatal shooting in Tuscaloosa. The Times corrected the error only after Spears filed a lawsuit. The verdict, delivered on August 20, 2026, marks the first time in over 50 years that the newspaper has lost a defamation case in the U.S.