Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ordered to pay $4.1m over false Sandy Hook claims – By Ramon Antonio Vargas (The Guardian) / Aug 4, 2022
Far-right Infowars owner faced defamation trial for repeatedly saying the school shooting was a hoax
The jury in Alex Jones’s defamation trial on Thursday ordered the far-right conspiracy theorist to pay $4.1m in damages over his repeated claims that the deadly Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax.
Jurors in Austin, Texas, gave their verdict after deliberating about one hour Wednesday and seven hours Thursday at the end of a nine-days-long trial which saw Jones apologize and concede that the 2012 massacre at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, was “100% real”. The verdict levied against Jones was far below the $150m or more the plaintiffs had requested that jurors award them.
In a separate phase Friday, jurors are to determine whether Jones owes any punitive damages in addition to the compensation he was ordered to pay Thursday.
Ten of 12 jurors signed Thursday’s verdict, which was the minimum number needed for a decision because the case was civil rather than criminal. The parents of Jesse Lewis, a six-year-old boy killed during the mass shooting, had set the case in motion.
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