A Texas appeals court on Friday reduced a $50 million judgment that former Infowars host Alex Jones was ordered to pay the families of victims who died in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting massacre in Connecticut for spreading fake claims that the deadly shooting was a hoax.
The Texas Third Court of Appeals, citing state laws limiting lawsuit damages, ruled that the Infowars founder will have to pay only about $6 million. Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, were forced him into bankruptcy, resulting in his assets being liquidated, according to coverage by the Associated Press.
The appeals court ruled that he would have to pay more than $4.1 million in compensatory damages awarded to Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, Sandy Hook parents of a 6-year-old son, for defamation and emotional distress, but it slashed more than $45 million in punitive damages to $1.5 million to comply with the state’s $750,000 cap per plaintiff. The Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy happened Dec. 14, 2012, and is one of the deadliest U.S. shootings, killing 20 first-graders and six educators.
The Sandy Hook victims’ families have not collected money from Jones, who has been appealing the court’s decision. Although Jones called the Friday ruling “a gigantic victory for the First Amendment,” the appeals court held the defamation finding against him. Jones also faces a $1.25 billion financial judgment in Connecticut.
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Supreme Court rejects Alex Jones’s bid to set aside $1.4 billion verdict
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