A Texas court slashed the judgment in one case against Alex Jones from $50 million against Infowars to $1.5 million. He called Sandy Hook a hoax. As a result, the parents of the murdered children were taunted and threatened.
The ruling does not affect a $1.4 billion judgment against Jones in Connecticut. However, it is a powerful victory for his free speech, no matter how much we might disagree with what he said.
The unanimous opinion by the Texas Third Court of Appeals found that Sandy Hook parents Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis did not show evidence that harassment inflamed by Jones’ hoax claims rose to a level that would allow them to exceed the state’s $750,000 cap on damages.
Heslin and Lewis’s 6-year-old son Jesse Lewis was among 20 children and six educators killed in the 2012 attack in Newtown, Connecticut.