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Former Alabama basketball player says New York Times should reveal source who falsely identified him in 2023 deadly shooting
ALABAMA (WHNT) — A former Alabama Basketball player believes the New York Times should have to reveal its source that falsely identified him at the scene of a deadly shooting in 2023. The Northern District of Alabama now has a decision to make.
A federal judge says the Alabama Supreme Court has to decide if the Shield Statute applies to information published online by a corporation that publishes a newspaper.
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Former UA basketball player Darius Miles and Michael Davis were charged with capital murder in a January 2023 shooting that led to the death of 23-year-old Jamea Harris. On May 9, Davis was found guilty of capital murder while Miles awaits his trial, which has yet to be set.
On March 15, 2023, federal court documents say that The New York Times Company published an article on its website relating to this incident. The story itself garnered national interest because of the reported involvement of two Alabama basketball players, Miles and Brandon Miller. Miller was never charged in the incident.
'News reports citing police testimony of an unidentified passenger in Mr. Miller's car provided additional intrigue,' the document says. Billy Witz, a New York Times Reporter, published an article headlined 'A Fourth Alabama Player Was at a Deadly Shooting, in a Car Hit by Bullets.' In this article, the federal document says Witz identified UA Basketball player Kai Spears as the 'unidentified passenger' in the vehicle with Miller.
At the bottom of the article, Witz reportedly attributed the information to a single, anonymous source. After the article was published and name-dropped Spears, the source told Witz that they were 'likely wrong' in identifying Spears as at the crime scene.
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In May 2023, Spears filed a lawsuit against The New York Times Company claiming the article was defamatory as well as false light invasion of privacy. Documents say the New York Times failed to use 'reasonable care in publishing and disseminating untrue statements about his presence at a crime scene and publicizing highly offensive false statements despite harboring serious doubts as to the reliability of its source and/or the source's information.'
In the original lawsuit, Spears said on the night of the incident, Spears met up with two high school friends who went to Clemson University and were in town. The document said Spears lived in the athletes' dorm and his friends were going to sleep on the couch in the common area of the four-person suite.
The night of the murder, Spears and his friends went out to eat, went back to the athletes' dorms and prepared to go out on the Strip, the retail and nightlife district directly off UA's campus, the lawsuit says. It also details a time frame of Spears and his friends movements from the evening of Jan. 14 to the morning of Jan. 15:
JAN 14 – 11 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. – Spears and his friends bump into three other people who were going into Houndstooth Bar
JAN 15 – 12:30 a.m. – Spears and his friends met up with Miller outside the bar where they all left to go eat at Moe's Original BBQ
While there, Spears facetimed another UA basketball player. On this call, the other player and Miller asked Spears and his friends if they wanted to go out with them. 'Due to the lateness of the hour and [Spears' friends] planned trip back to Clemson University, [the three] declined the invitation with intentions to return immediately to Bryant Hall with no stops at any location.'
1:40 a.m. – Spears and his friends and Miller went their separate ways.
1:48 a.m. – In the parking lot of Bryant Hall, Spears facetimed Miller to see where they ended up going. In that process, Spears 'was informed that shots were fired at the windshield of Miller's vehicle.'
2 a.m. – Cooper Lee, UA basketball manager, called Spears to gather his thoughts at the dorm.
2:30 a.m.- 2:35 a.m. – Lee arrived at Spears room
4 a.m. – Spears went to the police station because the Tuscaloosa Police Department wanted to interview all the basketball players who were out that night
According to the lawsuit, on March 15 around 3 p.m., Witz approached Spears and asked him, 'The night of the shooting, when you were in Brandon Miller's car, were you scared when the shots were fired?' To this question, Spears responded 'No comment,' per instruction from the UA Department of Athletics guidance.
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Around 8 p.m. on March 15, the article stating Spears was in Miller's vehicle the night of the murder was published. The lawsuit says on March 20, Spears made a written demand that the New York Times retract the published statements claiming he was at the scene of the murder. However, the lawsuit says on March 25, the statements were not retracted from the article.
On June 2, 2023, Lee emailed the New York Times to confirm that he was the previously unidentified passenger in Miller's vehicle at the time of the shooting. After this statement, the New York Times then updated the article, saying '[t]he original version of this article, published March 15, misidentified the person who was in the car with Brandon Miller when the shooting occurred,' according to federal court documents.
On July 28, 2023, the New York Times Company motioned to dismiss both charges Spears filed against it. This motion, in relevance to the defamatory claims, that 'Because Spears Did Not Plead Special Damages, His Complaint Fails as a Matter of Law Unless the Challenged Statements Constitute Defamation Per Se,' and 'It is Not Defamatory Per Se to State, Even Erroneously, that Someone was a Bystander to, or Victim of, a Crime.'
For the charge of False Light as to a matter of law, the New York Times Company said 'It is Not 'Highly Offensive' to Report Incorrectly that Spears Was in a Teammate's Car Shortly After He Actually Was in the Car,' and that 'The Complaint Does Not Plausibly Allege Actual Malice.'
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After some thought, On Dec. 6, 2023, a federal district judge granted in part and denied in part the New York Times Company's motion to dismiss:
GRANTED IN PART: The motion was granted to dismiss the false light claim
DENIED IN PART: The motion was denied to dismiss the defamation claim
After some back and forth on whether the New York Times is obligated to reveal the source that falsely accused Spears as being at the scene, a federal judge told the Supreme Court of Alabama on May 22, 2025, that it had to decide whether the state's Shield Statute applies to a coorporation that publishes online and in a written publication.
Mr. Spears has moved to compel the production of documents, to lift redactions on documents produced in response to his request for production, and to compel information redacted or withheld in The New York Times's responses to interrogatories.
The New York Times opposes this motion based on its contention that Alabama's Shield Statute prohibits the 'compelled disclosure of newsgathering information.''
Federal court documents
The document says that the New York Times defined 'newsgathering information' as including the identity of a source who provides information that it publishes as well as the identity of the source who corroborates some part of the published information.'
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The company says the statute applies to them because it is a newspaper and therefore the identities of sources are 'privileged.'
In addition, the New York Times argues that Spears 'conceded that the information provided by its source(s) was ''published' within the meaning of Ala. Code § 12-21-142,' and therefore waived this issue.' However, the federal document says concessions of law are not binding on the court.
This all being said, 'the court respectfully requests the Supreme Court of Alabama decide the question of whether the identity of a source whose information is published online by a corporation that publishes a newspaper is protected from compelled disclosure by a court.'
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