Johnny Depp, Amber Heard trial jury weighs complicated questions
FAIRFAX, Va. — The jury in Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s bombshell defamation trial has been given a set of complicated questions to weigh as it determines the outcome of the high-profile case.
The seven-person panel resumed deliberations in Fairfax, Virginia, on Tuesday following a six-week trial in which the testimony primarily focused on allegations of abuse that Heard says she suffered at the hands of her ex-husband.
But the jury hasn’t been tasked with determining whether Heard was abused.
The panel is weighing whether Heard defamed the “Pirates of the Caribbean” star when she wrote a Washington Post op-ed in 2018 describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.”
The jurors must decide whether the headline and two passages in the newspaper article are defamatory — and the verdict form gives them step-by-step instructions on how to determine that.
In the first passage of her op-ed, Heard wrote that “two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath.”
In a second passage, she wrote, “I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse.”
Depp’s lawyers are also seeking damages in the $50 million libel suit over the headline that appeared above Heard’s op-ed.
The jury — which must come to a unanimous decision for a verdict — has to consider whether each of the passages was about Depp, whether it has a “defamatory implication” and whether Heard intended for it to smear her ex-husband.
The panelists also have to determine whether Heard acted with “actual malice,” which requires “clear and convincing evidence” that she either knew what she was writing was false or that she acted with reckless disregard for the truth.
While the article never mentions Depp by name, his attorneys argue he was defamed nonetheless because Heard publicly accused Depp of domestic violence back in 2016 amid their bitter divorce.
Heard subsequently hit back with a $100 million countersuit, arguing her acting career was destroyed after Depp’s lawyer Adam Waldman publicly said in 2020 that she fabricated her domestic abuse allegations.
The jury — which must come to a unanimous decision for a verdict — has to consider eight questions for each of the passages and headline, including whether they were about Depp, whether each has a “defamatory implication” and whether Heard intended for it to smear her ex-husband.
During closing arguments Friday, Depp lawyer Camille Vasquez tried to suggest that if the jurors think Heard is lying or embellishing her abuse claims, she can’t be trusted.
“You either believe all of it, or none of it,” Vasquez told the jurors. “Either she is a victim of ugly, horrible abuse, or she is a woman who is willing to say absolutely anything.”
Meanwhile, Heard’s lawyer Benjamin Rottenborn argued that Depp’s defamation claim must fail if Heard suffered even a single incident of abuse.
“If Amber was abused by Mr. Depp even one time, then she wins,” he said during his closing statements.
“A ruling against Amber sends a message that no matter what you do as an abuse victim, you always have to do more,” he said. “Don’t send that message.”
Her attorneys also argued that Heard has a First Amendment right to weigh in on domestic violence.
