Amber Heard alleges wrong juror appeared in Johnny Depp defamation trial, requests new trial
Johnny Depp & Amber Heard's defamation case Photograph:( Instagram )
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According to some court documents, Amber Heard's lawyers claim that a wrong juror served in her defamation trial against Johnny Depp.
According to some court documents, Amber Heard's lawyers claim that a wrong juror served in her defamation trial against Johnny Depp.
The legal team of actress Amber Heard has filed a request for a new trial in her defamation case against her ex-husband Johnny Depp. Claiming that a juror who was not called for duty participated in the trial, Heard appealed to the court on Friday and said that her right to “a jury trial and due process” was “undermined and compromised”.
According to the documents filed by her lawyers in the Circuit Court of Fairfax County, the actress claims that she is entitled to a mistrial "based on newly discovered facts and information that Juror No. 15 was not the individual summoned for jury duty on April 11, 2022."
The documents further claimed that the person who was selected for the jury duty was 77 years old at the time and he shares the same last name and Virginia address as someone who was 52. As per the reports, the younger person was summoned for the trial and not the older one.
"It is deeply troubling for an individual not summoned for jury duty nonetheless to appear for jury duty and serve on a jury, especially in a such as this," PEOPLE quotes the documents as saying. The lawyers further noted the "high-profile" status of the trial "where the fact and date of the jury trial were highly publicized prior to and after the issuance of the juror summonses."
After a six-week-long trial, the jury had ruled that Heard has defamed Depp by calling herself a “public figure representing domestic abuse”. She was ordered to pay him over $10 million in damages.
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Depp had sued Heard over her 2018 Washington Post op-ed in which she had claimed that she is a “public figure representing domestic abuse.” As the six-week-long televised trial began, Jurors found that Heard had actually been equally abusive towards Depp and due to lack of proof, she couldn't prove most of her claims against the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' actor. So, the jurors had given a judgement in favour of Depp.
