Former Alaska governor and Republican Sarah Palin on Wednesday secured the right to a retrial in her high-profile libel lawsuit against The New York Times.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled to allow a second hearing in a case over a 2017 editorial that falsely linked Palin to a 2011 mass shooting in Arizona that left six people dead and severely injured Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
The appeals court found that District Judge Jed Rakoff, who presided over the initial trial in February 2022, made several significant errors that jeopardized the trial’s progress.
A New York Times spokesperson told Mediaite: “We are disappointed with this verdict. We are confident that we will prevail at retrial.”
On Wednesday, Circuit Judge John Walker, speaking for the three-judge jury, said Judge Rakoff “wrongfully excluded” evidence that Ms. Palin believed showed “actual malice” in The New York Times’ editorial. The panel also noted that Judge Rakoff improperly instructed the jury on the standard of proof needed to hold The New York Times liable.
Further problems arose when, while the jury was deliberating, they received a breaking news message on their cell phones indicating that Rakoff intended to dismiss Palin’s case for insufficient evidence of malice.
The editorial in question, “America’s Deadly Politics,” was published in response to the 2017 shooting at a congressional baseball game practice. The editorial incorrectly suggested that a map circulated by Palin’s political action committee that showed stylized crosshairs on certain districts caused the Arizona shooting. The Times quickly corrected the editorial, but Palin argued that the damage had already been done.
Palin’s lawyer, Ken Turkel, issued a statement to the media site on Wednesday saying, “Governor Palin is very pleased with today’s ruling, which is a major step forward in the process of holding publishers accountable for content that misleads readers and the public. The truth deserves a level playing field. Governor Palin looks forward to presenting her case to a jury that has been ‘presented with the relevant evidence and properly instructed on the law,’ as stated in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision.”
Diana Falzone contributed to this report.
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