An Alabama jury determined on Thursday that The New York Times defamed a college basketball player in a 2023 article that incorrectly reported he was at the scene of a deadly shooting in Tuscaloosa.

The eight-person jury awarded $9.25 million in damages, after a nine-day trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Kai Spears, who played for the University of Alabama men’s basketball team, sued the Times in 2023, accusing it of libel and “false light” invasion of privacy. He claimed the article, which mistakenly reported he was a passenger in a car involved in the shooting, had caused him emotional distress and forever linked him with a murder. Three other basketball players from the school were present at the shooting, which killed a 23-year-old mother.

The Times corrected the article and added an editor’s note after Spears filed his lawsuit, which disclosed the identity of the passenger in the car for the first time.

The Times had not lost a defamation lawsuit brought in the United States over one of its articles in more than 50 years.

The Times and Spears did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Katie Robertson/Lexi Parra
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