Palin Loses Defamation Retrial

Sarah Palin is now 0 for 2 in defamation lawsuits against the New York Times. After around two hours of deliberations, a jury decided Tuesday that the Times did not libel the former Alaska governor with an editorial in 2017 that suggested rhetoric from her political action committee had contributed to a mass shooting in 2011, Reuters reports.

• "The link to political incitement was clear," stated the editorial, which the Times corrected within 14 hours. Palin attorney Kenneth Turkel argued that former editorial page editor James Bennet either knew what he was publishing was false or acted with "reckless disregard" for the truth, the AP reports.

• Turkel urged the jury to award Palin compensatory damages for mental anguish and damage to her reputation, saying that while she had a "bouncy" persona on the witness stand, the story had been devastating. "She doesn't cry a lot," he said, per the AP. "It may have been to them an honest mistake. For her, it was a life changer."
• Bennet testified that he was under deadline pressure when he added language to the editorial that linked a map released by Palin's PAC to the Tucson shooting that killed six people and seriously injured Rep. Gabby Giffords, Reuters reports. The map showed crosshairs over the districts of Democratic lawmakers, including Giffords.

• "To win this case, Governor Palin needs to prove that the New York Times and James Bennet did not care about the truth," said Felicia Ellsworth, a lawyer for the Times. "There has not been one shred of evidence showing anything other than an honest mistake."
• Palin and other conservatives saw the case as a chance to overturn the 1964 Supreme Court ruling that required public figures suing for defamation to show that a statement was made with "actual malice," reports Reuters. The verdict "reaffirms the centrality of the New York Times versus Sullivan case to press freedom in our country," First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams tells the Wall Street Journal.
• A jury ruled against Palin in her 2022 lawsuit against the Times. The retrial proceeded after an appeals court found flaws in the first trial and determined that the judge's decision to dismiss the case while the jury was still deliberating "improperly intruded on the jury's work," the AP reports.

(More Sarah Palin stories.)