The New York Times Company v. Kai Spears (Certified Question from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama: 7:23-cv-00692-ACA).

── The New York Times Company v. Kai Spears (Certified Question from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama: 7:23-cv-00692-ACA). ── Court: Supreme Court of Alabama Date: April 10, 2026 Author: Chris McCool Category: General Rel: April 10, 2026 Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the advance sheets of Southern Reporter. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Alabama Appellate Courts, 300 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama 36104-3741 ((334) 229-0650), of any typographical or other errors, in order that corrections may be made before the opinion is printed in Southern Reporter. SUPREME COURT OF ALABAMA OCTOBER TERM, 2025-2026 _________________________ SC-2025-0370 _________________________ The New York Times Company v. Kai Spears Certified Questions from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama (Case No. 7:23-cv-00692-ACA) McCOOL, Justice. Pursuant to Rule 18, Ala. R. App. P., the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama ("the district court") has certified two legal questions to this Court. Those questions stem from an SC-2025-0370 action that Kai Spears has commenced in the district court against The New York Times Company ("The Times"). Facts and Procedural History In the early morning hours of January 15, 2023, Jamea Harris was shot and killed during an exchange of gunfire in Tuscaloosa. Harris's death received national media attention because three members of the University of Alabama's men's basketball team, including Darius Miles and Brandon Miller, were allegedly involved in the shooting. Specifically, Miller, at the request of Miles, allegedly "br[ought] the gun that killed Harris to the scene of the shooting," and Miles then allegedly gave the gun to Michael Davis, who shot and killed Harris. Miles and Davis were subsequently charged with capital murder. Miller was present, in his car, when the shooting occurred, and another person associated with the basketball team was with Miller in his car. It is now undisputed that that person was Cooper Lee, but, at all times relevant to this case, Lee's identity was unknown to the parties. During the investigation into Harris's murder, a detective discovered that there was "an unidentified passenger in Miller's car" at the time of Harris's murder. A confidential source later told Billy Witz, 2 SC-2025-0370 a reporter with The Times, that Spears, another player on the basketball team, was the unidentified person in Miller's car. The parties refer to that confidential source as "Source A." A second confidential source, whom the parties refer to as "Source B," told Witz that " 'someone with Alabama was in the car.' " Given the information he received from Source A and Source B, Witz reached out to Spears to confirm whether he was in fact the unidentified person in Miller's car at the time of Harris's murder. However, Spears declined to comment because the University of Alabama had instructed the members of its men's basketball team not to speak to the media about Harris's murder. Witz then contacted Spears's father, "who unequivocally stated that his son was not the unidentified passenger" in Miller's car. Nevertheless, Witz told Spears's father that The Times planned to publish an article identifying Spears as the unidentified passenger in Miller's car unless Spears agreed to an interview, which Spears refused to do. On March 15, 2023, at 8:10 p.m., The Times published an online article, authored by Witz, which stated that "[a] person familiar with the case," who had "spoke[n] on condition of anonymity," had identified 3 SC-2025-0370 Spears as the unidentified passenger in Miller's car at the time of Harris's murder.