The N.Y. Times (Katie Robertson) also reports this development, adding that “The Times had not lost a defamation lawsuit filed in the United States over one of its articles in more than half a century.”
Below is a portion of the May ruling by Judge Annemarie Carney Axon of the Northern District of Alabama in Spears v. N.Y. Times Co. that permitted the case to proceed:
Plaintiff Kai Spears was a walk-on on the University of Alabama men’s basketball squad and formed close ties with teammates, including Brandon Miller. In the early hours of January 15, 2023, Spears and Miller went to Moe’s Original BBQ in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Unbeknownst to Spears, another teammate—Darius Miles—asked Miller to bring Miles a gun that had been left in Miller’s car. So Miller went to Miles, and Spears began returning to his dorm. A short time later, gunfire erupted on the Strip, and Michael Davis, Miles’s longtime friend, fired the gun that Miller had delivered and killed Jamea Harris.
Two months later, The Times published an article titled “A Fourth Alabama Player Was at a Deadly Shooting, in a Car Hit by Bullets.” The opening line stated that the fatal January shooting involving Alabama basketball players could have been even more deadly, as video footage showed two players in a car that was struck by bullets during the crossfire.
It added that Spears was in the car with Miller at the time of the shooting and that Miles had asked Miller to bring Miles’s gun to the scene. The piece noted that the University had tried to distance itself from the incident and keep other players’ involvement quiet. The article then discussed the criticism directed at Miller and the University when Miller continued playing after the shooting.
The statements about Spears were false, and this lawsuit followed….
The court held that Spears needed to show that the allegedly defamatory statements were false in every material respect, but it found that he had produced sufficient evidence to let a jury decide the claim:
At the motion-to-dismiss stage, the Times argued that the article was not defamatory because it portrayed Spears as a potential victim. Addressing the Times’s contention that Spears was described as being “in a car struck by bullets” and that the shooting “could have been even more deadly,” Judge Coogler noted that “taken alone, these lines do not obviously convey a defamatory meaning.” Yet Judge Coogler added that — when evaluating whether a news article bears a defamatory interpretation — Alabama law requires viewing the piece in its entirety. He explained that the full article could lead a reasonable reader to conclude that “[Mr.] Spears was somehow involved in the shooting.” …
Spears has presented enough evidence to meet the burden because a reasonable jury could determine that Spears was not “involved” in the shooting. Although he spent hours with Miller before the incident, Spears had no knowledge that Miller was speaking with Miles or that Miles had asked Miller to bring him a gun.
Additionally, Spears did not know where Miller intended to go or what he planned to do when leaving Moe’s. He did not know that Miles’s gun was in Miller’s car. And of course, Spears did not enter Miller’s car, nor was he present at the scene when the gunfire occurred. At the moment of the shooting, Spears and his friends were on their way back to their dorm. He became aware of the shooting only after it happened….
Mary Virginia Buck, R. Matt Glover (Prince, Glover & Hayes P.C.), and Stephen P. New are counsel for the plaintiff.
