Alex Jones trial - live: Jury begins deliberating in Infowars host’s second Sandy Hook hoax case
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The jury has finished its first full day of deliberation in Alex Jones’ second defamation damages trial over his lies about the Sandy Hook massacre.
Jurors convened to weigh the case on Friday after closing arguments the day before, where attorneys for the families of the Sandy Hook victims urged them to consider the enormous profits Jones had made from spreading conspiracy theories about the mass shooting when determining how much he should pay in damages.
“Every single one of these families were drowning in grief, and Alex Jones put his foot right on top of them,” attorney Christopher Mattei said.
Visitor numbers to Jones’ Infowars website spiked by more than 40 per cent after the December 2012 tragedy, Mr Mattei said.
He suggested a damages award of at least $550m, as Jones and Infowars had received an estimated 550 million views from their Sandy Hook hoax content on social media accounts from 2012 to 2018.
Meanwhile, Jones’ attorney Norm Pattis asked jurors to return a more measured verdict to help restore his client’s faith in “the system”.
ICYMI: Sandy Hook father recalls becoming top target for Alex Jones’s hoax lies
Robbie Parker, who lost his six-year-old daughter Emilie at Sandy Hook, testified during the trial about a brief statement he made to the media the day after the tragedy where he paid tribute to his little girl who “made the world a better place”.
It was the first time any of the victim’s families had spoken publicly, and made him a target for Alex Jones.
Over the following years, Mr Jones repeatedly mocked Mr Parker’s heartbreaking moment of intense grief on his far-right conspiracy show Infowars and branded him “a soap opera actor”.
Read Rachel Sharp’s full report.
Sandy Hook father recalls press briefing that made him top target of Alex Jones’ lies
Robbie Parker told the court that he had been waiting to set the record straight ‘for a long time’
ICYMI: Alex Jones says he’s ‘done apologising’
Testifying early in the defamation trial, Alex Jones ranted that he was “done apologising” for spreading conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook mass shooting.
“I’ve already said I’m sorry hundreds of times. And I’m done saying sorry,” he shouted across the courtroom.
Read the full report.
Alex Jones shouts ‘I’m done apologising’ at Sandy Hook parents crying in court
Far-right conspiracy theorist – who has spent much of the trial mocking the proceedings on his Infowars show – moaned that ‘people think that I killed the kids’
Jury to determine damages owed to 15 plaintiffs
The jury will convene at 9.30am today to determine the damages owed by Alex Jones to 15 plaintiffs in the Connecticut case.
In closing arguments on Thursday, Jones’ lawyer Norm Pattis urged jurors to return a measured verdict to help restore his client’s faith in “the system”.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs, however, offered up $550m as a reasonable number.
“This is their one chance, and your one chance — your one chance — to render a verdict on just how much devastation Alex Jones has caused,” attorney Christopher Mattei said.
It is unclear how long the jury will take to bring back two numbers - one for compensatory damages and another for punitive.
What happened in the first Texas trial?
As the jury sets out to reach a verdict in Jones’ second Sandy Hook defamation trial in Connecticut, they will not consider any information from the first trial in Texas.
In that trial, which concluded in August, Jones was ordered to pay $45.2m in punitive damages and $4.11m in compensatory damages to Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose six-year-old son Jesse was among the 20 students and six adults killed in the mass shooting.
Mr Heslin and Ms Lewis had asked for $150m in compensatory damages.
Jones will ultimately have to pay far less in the Texas case due to damages caps set under state law.
But those caps are not at play in the Connecticut case - where damages are expected to be far higher because it involves 15 plaintiffs.
Quiet in the courtroom
The Waterbury, Connecticut, courtroom has now gone quiet after four weeks of intense testimony.
Friday’s proceedings began with Judge Barbara Bellis offering a brief recap of deliberation instructions before jurors were sent out to begin.
There is no telling how long the jury will take to come to a consensus on damages owed.
EXPLAINED: How deliberation works
As deliberations kicked off, the Associated Press put together a list of key questions and answers about the process:
COULD THE JURY DECIDE THAT WHAT JONES DID IS PROTECTED BY THE FIRST AMENDMENT?
No. A judge has already ruled that Jones is liable for defamation, infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy and violating Connecticut’s unfair trade practices law. The jury’s job is to decide how much he owes for harming the people who sued him over his lies.
HOW MUCH COULD JONES PAY?
Jones, who lives in Austin, Texas, could be ordered to pay as little as $1 to each plaintiff or potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to them. The decision will be based on whether the jury determines the harm to the families was minimal or extensive.
Christopher Mattei, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the jury should award the plaintiffs at least $550 million. Jones’ lawyer, Norm Pattis, says any damages awarded should be minimal.
HOW DOES THE JURY COME UP WITH THE DOLLAR FIGURES?
In her instructions to the jury, Judge Barbara Bellis said there are no mathematical formulas for determining dollar amounts. Jurors, she said, should use their life experiences and common sense to award damages that are “fair, just and reasonable.”
The jury, however, heard evidence and testimony that Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, made millions of dollars from selling nutritional supplements, survival gear and other items. A company representative testified it has made at least $100 million in the past decade.
WHAT KIND OF DAMAGES ARE THE JURY CONSIDERING?
Jurors could award both compensatory and punitive damages.
Compensatory damages are often meant to reimburse people for actual costs such as medical bills and income loss, but they also include compensation for emotional distress that can reach into the millions of dollars.
Punitive damages are meant to punish a person for their conduct. If the jury decides Jones should pay punitive damages, the judge would determine the amount.
DOES CONNECTICUT CAP DAMAGES?
No, and yes. The state does not limit compensatory damages, while punitive damages are limited in many cases to attorney’s fees and costs. So if the jury says Jones should pay punitive damages, he would potentially have to shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Sandy Hook families’ lawyers’ costs.
Jones’ lawyer compares him to famous authors warning of dystopian futures
In his closing argument on Thursday, Jones’ lawyer Norm Pattis characterised his client’s wild Infowars rhetoric as that of a “mad prophet” warning of a dystopian future.
He compared Jones to literary icons Margaret Atwood and George Orwell to illustrate that argument.
New York Times journalist Elizabeth Williamson noted that Mr Pattis made a similarly far-fetched comparison when he represented Fotis Dulos against charges for murdering his wife Jennifer in 2019.
In that case, Mr Pattis compared Jennifer to the protagonist in the novel and film “Gone Girl”, suggesting she may have staged her disappearance, the Stamford Advocate reported.
His involvement in the case came to an end when Fotis Dulos died by suicide before trial.
The Independent’s Bevan Hurley explains the more recent comparison in the Jones case:
Alex Jones’ lawyer compares him to The Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood
“There have always been creative geniuses in the world,” Jones’ attorney Norm Pattis says
WATCH: Sandy Hook and 9/11 were ‘best two days’ of Alex Jones’s life, victims’ lawyer says
Sandy Hook and 9/11 were “the best two days” of Jones’s life, a lawyer for the victims of the school massacre claimed in Thursday’s closing arguments.
Watch the dramatic remarks:
Sandy Hook and 9/11 were ‘best two days’ of Alex Jones’s life, victims’ lawyer claims
Sandy Hook and 9/11 were “the best two days” of Alex Jones’s life, a lawyer for the victims of the school massacre has claimed. In closing arguments on day 14 of Jones’s defamation trial, attorney Josh Koskoff told the jury that the Infowars host chased profits while encouraging his followers to harass grieving families. He added that Jones “thrives on keeping people divided” and referenced two days when Americans were united: the September 11 terror attacks and the Sandy Hook mass shooting. “For Alex Jones, those were the best two days of this life,” Koskoff said. Sign up to our newsletters.
ICYMI: Sandy Hook father says he felt like he ‘failed’ his slain daughter
Some of the most gut-wrenching trial testimony came from Robbie Parker, who told the jury he believed he was “failing” his six-year-old daughter Emilie’s memory as Jones lies continued to spread lies about her.
Read more about Mr Parker’s heartbreaking testimony from Rachel Sharp:
Sandy Hook father says Alex Jones lies made him feel like he ‘failed’ his daughter
Robbie Parker testified that seeing the far-right extremist continue to spread lies about the families of Parkland was a ‘big catalyst’ to him to ‘fight’
Plaintiffs ask jurors to consider Infowars profits in verdict
In closing arguments on Thursday, plaintiffs’ attorney Christopher Mattei urged jurors to consider the financial windfall Infowars saw as a result of Jones’ lies in determining what damages he owes.
He asked the jury to assign a dollar amount to each of the lies and multiple that by the more than 500 million times each lie was viewed on the show.
To illustrate the impact of Jones’ hoax claims on Infowars’ profits, Mr Matteu pulled up a graphic of user numbers and page views between December 2012 when Sandy Hook occurred and January 2013.
“Look at the payoff, the spike,” he said.
“The engagement of the audience, that was a good thing for them.”
He then told the jury: “This is their one chance, and your one chance — your one chance — to render a verdict on just how much devastation Alex Jones has caused.”
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