The Hulk Hogan – Gawker Sex Tape Case Goes to the Jury … We Await the Verdict (VIDEO) (Update: Hogan Wins, Awarded $115 Million in Damages)

We await the verdict as the Hulk Hogan – Gawker Sex Tape case has been presented to the six member jury. The jurors are weighing a celebrity’s right to privacy in the Internet age against freedom of the press as protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The edited 1 minute and 41 second video showed Hogan, a longtime star of the WWE, having sex with the wife of his then-best friend, radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem. The 62 year old Hulk Hogan is asking for $100 million in damages.

Just bizarre.

The time has nearly come for a verdict in the first-ever trial pitting a celebrity against a media organization for the posting of a sex tape. The proceedings represent a probing of newsworthiness and whether a media can be held to maintain decency. More than three-and-a-half years since Gawker published a post titled, “Even for a Minute, Watching Hulk Hogan Have Sex in a Canaopy Bed is Not Safe for Work but Watch it Anyway,” jury deliberations began after Hogan and Gawker gave a six-member jury in a Florida courtroom their closing arguments. These jurors began deliberations without having yet seen the sex tape in question.

Hogan (real name: Terry Bollea) contends that a less-than-two-minute excerpt of a 30-minute video, showing the famous wrestler sleeping with Heather Cole, then the wife of his best friend Bubba the Love Sponge (a radio host born Todd Clem), was an invasion of privacy, illegal wiretapping, a violation of the right of publicity and inflicted emotional distress. In weighing Hogan’s claims, the jury has been instructed to consider whether the video was highly offensive and was outside the bounds of human decency, causing (purposely or by reckless disregard) Hogan to experience shame and embarrassment. The jury will also consider whether Hogan had a reasonable expectation of privacy and whether Hogan’s name and likeness was used in a commercial purposes. If Hogan has proven the elements of his claims, the jury will also take up Gawker’s defense — that the publishing of the video is protected by the First Amendment because it related to a public concern, meaning it was “newsworthy.”

Before closing arguments began, Pinellas County Judge Pamela Campbell noted the line between free speech and unfair intrusion, telling the jury they’d have to consider what “ceases to be the giving of legitimate information to which the public is entitled and becomes a morbid and sensational prying into private lives for its own sake.”

UPDATE I: Hulk Hogan Awarded $115 Million in Privacy Suit Against Gawker.

WOW, must have been some Hulkamaniacs on the jury.

The retired wrestler Hulk Hogan was awarded $115 million in damages on Friday by a Florida jury in an invasion of privacy case against Gawker.com over its publication of a sex tape — an astounding figure that tops the $100 million he had asked for, that will probably grow before the trial concludes, and that could send a cautionary signal to online publishers despite the likelihood of an appeal by Gawker.

The wrestler, known in court by his legal name, Terry G. Bollea, sobbed as the verdict was announced in late afternoon, according to people in the courtroom. The jury had considered the case for about six hours.

Mr. Bollea’s team said the verdict represented “a statement as to the public’s disgust with the invasion of privacy disguised as journalism,” adding: “The verdict says, ‘No more.’ ”

UPDATE II: Jury Tacks On $25 Million to Gawker’s Bill in Hulk Hogan Case.

A Florida jury assessed Gawker Media millions more in punitive damages on Monday for having invaded the privacy of the retired wrestler Hulk Hogan, adding to the $115 million it awarded in compensatory damages last week.

After a two-week trial in a St. Petersburg, Fla., courtroom, jurors ordered Gawker, an online news organization, and its two co-defendants to pay the 62-year-old former wrestler — addressed in court as Terry G. Bollea, his given name — more than $25 million in punitive damages.