Actress Amber Heard is suing her ex-husband Johnny Depp for defamation, and she wants a new trial to be ordered and a mistrial to be proclaimed. Her attorneys argued in front of a US court that because the high-profile trial included an incorrect juror who was not listed for duty, “due process was undermined” and that the court should therefore overturn the June 1 judgement and order a new trial. Amber’s legal team recently petitioned the court to throw out the defamation trial verdict because Johnny’s assertion that Amber slandered her was unsupported by any proof.
Amber was mandated to pay Johnny $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages in a Virginia court by the jury. The judge reduced these amounts to $3.5 million due to a cap in the state of Virginia. However, after their defamation trial, Johnny Depp was mandated to pay Amber $2 million. The jury determined that Amber had slandered her ex-husband in a 2018 essay where she claimed to have experienced domestic violence.
In a recent article, Amber’s attorneys claim that the defamation trial’s jury was set incorrectly.
According to a story from Deadline published on Friday, a 77-year-old man who appeared to reside at the same location as a 52-year-old man with “the same surname” was summoned for jury duty. The latter was the juror who ultimately sat through the entire trial on the jury.
“Ms. Heard had a right to rely on the fundamental guarantee provided by the Virginia Code that the jurors in this case would be people who had received jury service summonses. Juror No. 15 in this case doesn’t seem to have been the person identified on the jury panel.
The 52-year-old (redacted) who served on the jury for six weeks was never called for jury service on April 11, and she did not ‘appear in the list,’ as required, according to Amber’s lawyers, who made their claim in a newly filed document that was only partially redacted and was obtained by Deadline.
Amber’s attorney claimed that because of the alleged error, “due process” had been “compromised,” and that the court should declare a mistrial in order to invalidate the initial trial and its results.
“Therefore, Ms. Heard’s right to due process was violated. Elaine Bredehoft, Amber’s attorney, was mentioned in the latest report as saying that a mistrial should be declared and a new trial should be scheduled in these circumstances.
There is no proof that Mrs. Heard’s Op-Ed hurt Mr. Depp’s reputation, according to Amber’s attorneys, who had claimed that Johnny was not entitled to any damages that the jury had awarded him.
Amber and Johnny have both accused one another of domestic abuse. Due to an opinion piece Amber authored for The Washington Post in 2018, Johnny filed a defamation lawsuit against her. However, she described herself as “a public figure symbolising domestic abuse” without ever mentioning his name. Amber counterclaimed against Johnny for $100 million in 2021.
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