Jurors considering opposing lawsuits brought by ex-spouses Johnny Depp and Amber Heard Deliberations continued on Tuesday after sending a question to the judge overseeing the trial about the actors’ multi-million libel allegations.
After about four hours of deliberations on Tuesday, the seven-person jury asked the judge Penney Azcarate to answer whether they should consider the entire article or just the headline. The headline read that Heard “spoke out against sexual violence — and faced the wrath of our culture.”
Azcarate said he would tell the jury that the headline was the statement they should consider in reaching their verdict.
During six weeks of depositions, Heard’s lawyers argued that she had told the truth and that her comments were covered as free speech under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
Throughout the case, jurors listened to recordings of the couple’s fights and saw graphic photos of Depp’s bloodied finger. He said the top of his finger was cut off when Heard threw a bottle of vodka at him in 2015.
Heard denied injuring Depp’s finger and said Depp sexually assaulted her that night with a bottle of liquor. She said she hit him just to defend herself or her sister.
The testimony was widely streamed live on social media, drawing large audiences to hear details about the couple’s troubled relationship.
Once among Hollywood’s biggest stars, Depp said Heard’s allegations cost him “everything”. A new “Pirates” movie has been put on hold and Depp has been replaced in the “Fantastic Beasts” movie franchise, a spin-off of “Harry Potter”.
Depp lost a libel case less than two years ago against The Sun, a British tabloid that branded him a “wife beater”. A London High Court judge ruled that he had repeatedly assaulted Heard.
Depp’s attorneys have filed the US case in Fairfax County, Virginia, because the Washington Post is printed there. The newspaper is not a defendant.
The process
Johnny Depp, 58, sued Amber Heard in Virginia for $50 million and argued that she defamed him when she called herself “a public figure representing domestic abuse” in a newspaper op-ed.
Heard, 36, has sued for $100 million, saying Depp defamed her when her lawyer called her allegations a “hoax”.
Depp denied hitting Heard or any woman and said she was the one who turned violent in their relationship.
Depp and Heard met in 2011 while filming “Diary of a Drunken Journalist” and got married in February 2015. Their divorce was finalized about two years later.
At the heart of the legal case is a December 2018 op-ed by Heard in The Washington Post, in which she made the statement about domestic abuse. The article didn’t mention Depp by name, but her lawyer told jurors it was clear Heard was referring to him.
Remember the main moments that have taken place in court since April 11:
Source: CNN Brasil
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