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Texas Appeals Court Reduces Defamation Judgment Against Alex Jones to $1.5 Million
Just the facts
A Texas appellate court significantly reduced the monetary damages awarded to parents of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. The unanimous decision by the Texas Third Court of Appeals capped the award at $1.5 million after determining plaintiffs Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis lacked sufficient evidence to surpass Texas's $750,000 statutory limit on non-economic damages. The ruling modifies a previous 2022 jury verdict that held Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, liable for damages over statements regarding the mass shooting. The Texas appellate decision does not affect a separate $1.4 billion defamation judgment issued against Jones by a state court in Connecticut.
Why this is news
The Texas Third Court of Appeals issued a unanimous ruling reducing a $50 million defamation judgment against Infowars founder Alex Jones to $1.5 million. The decision applied a state statutory cap on non-economic damages in civil lawsuits.
Sources
This summary is compiled strictly from the original reporting below.