Justices won’t reinstate award against Hustler mag
Dec 10, 2012, 2:47 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court won’t reinstate an award against a racy magazine in a dispute over nude pictures of a model published after she was killed by her professional wrestler husband.
The court turned away a request by the family of Nancy Toffoloni Benoit to reinstate a jury’s decision to make Hustler Magazine pay them almost $20 million. The magazine published the photos after she and her son were killed in 2007 by wrestler Chris Benoit.
Benoit’s family said Nancy never gave permission to publish the 24-year-old photos, while the magazine said it could print them because they were newsworthy.
The jury’s 2011 decision to penalize the magazine $19.6 million was later reduced to $250,000. The award was then thrown out by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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