ATLANTA — A federal appeals court has sided with a racy magazine in a dispute over nude pictures of a model published after she was killed by her professional wrestler husband.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday said there wasn't enough evidence to support a jury's decision to make Hustler Magazine pay almost $20 million to the family of Nancy Toffolini Benoit.
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, which was also vacated by the court.