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Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation trial: Jury submits first question to judge amid deliberations
In Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's case, the jury submitted their first question regarding the actress' op-ed during deliberations.
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's defamation trial is currently undergoing jury deliberations and it has been reported that the first question about the case was recently submitted by the jury to the judge. As per Deadline, in their first full day of deliberations jurors posted a question about how they should weigh the headline in Heard’s Washington Post op-ed.
The op-ed has been crucial to the case given that Depp filed his USD 50 million defamation suit on the basis of that, claiming how it affected his career. As for the 2018 article's online version, the headline for the December 2018 piece read, "I Spoke Up Against Sexual Violence — And Faced Our Culture’s Wrath. That Has To Change." It has been reported that Judge Penney Azcarate stated that the jurors were wondering if they must consider the headline was defamatory or whether that should be connected to the "content of the statement, everything in the op-ed."
During their deliberations, on the jury verdict forms, the headline is one of three statements that they have to weigh in on to determine whether to rule in favour of Depp. The seven jurors also have to decide if statements in the content of the op-ed are defamatory.
During the trial that has lasted the past five weeks, Heard’s legal team pointed out that Depp is not mentioned in the op-ed or the headline although the actor's legal team has argued that it was clear to readers who his ex-wife was referring to in the piece when she referred to herself as a domestic abuse survivor.
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