American actress Amber Heard desires the judgment of the libel trial against her ex-husband Johnny Depp to be dismissed. Heard’s attorney filed a motion asking that include the $10.35M in damages granted to Depp by the jury.
Heard’s attorneys also argued that the verdict is not backed by evidence. The 43-page manuscript submitted to the Fairfax County Circuit Court also calls “to investigate improper juror service”.
The report claimed that public knowledge suggests that a juror who served during the trial was born in 1970, despite bench officers listing the person’s birth year as 1945.
By demanding the defamation verdict be overturned, #AmberHeard is spitting in the face of one of the most important amendments of the US Constitution: the inestimable privilege of a trial by jury which is conceded by all to be essential to civil liberty.
https://t.co/QodkrUGsJH— Brian K. Murphy 🇺🇸🏴☠️ (@bmurphy63) July 3, 2022
Amber Heard lawyer
Heard’s lawyers wrote, “This discrepancy raises the question of whether Juror 15 actually received a summons for jury duty and was properly vetted by the court to serve on the jury.” Variety notes that Heard’s legal team also argues that the jurors’ $10.35 million awards against the actress are “inconsistent and irreconcilable,” with the jury’s conclusion that both her and Depp had defamed one another.
Apart from Depp’s $10 million in compensatory damages, and $350,000 in punitive damages, the jury also awarded Heard $2 million in compensatory damages for her counterclaim.
In the filing, Heard’s attorneys further wrote that “Mr. Depp presented no evidence that Ms. Heard did not believe she was abused. Therefore, Mr. Depp did not meet the legal requirements for actual malice, and the verdict should be set aside.”
Depp’s lead attorney, Ben Chew, commented on the motion to dump the verdict, disregarding it as “what we expected, just longer, no more substantive,” in a statement to ‘Courthouse News’.
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