Punitive damages were a large fraction of the award.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/10/12/us/alex-jones-verdic...
> This case presented the greatest financial risk to Mr. Jones, because he was found liable of violating Connecticut’s Unfair Trade Practices Act, by using lies about the shooting to sell products on Infowars. There is no cap on punitive damages under that law.
> ...
> The next step will be for the judge to consider punitive damages, which would be in addition to Wednesday’s verdict.
The article How the jury divided $965 million in damages among the plaintiffs in the case. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/12/us/politics/alex-jones-da...
This has a breakdown of the compensatory damages and you get things like:
> Defamation/slander damages, past and future: $60 million
> Emotional distress damages, past and future: $60 million
> Total damages: $120 million
for one defendant. As there were 14 defendants, this can sum up quite quickly.
That's not much of a breakdown, and if anything it seems to go against the idea that these dollar amounts aren't punitive. Are we supposed to assume that that particular plaintiff would have been $60 million richer if Jones hadn't had said what he said? Ridiculous.
The emotional distress damages are more subjective, of course, but I still don't see the amounts as any less punitive at this point.