One of many jurors within the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial served improperly, an legal professional for Heard allegations in a latest submitting that requested the court docket to declare a mistrial and order a brand new trial.
“Newly found details” present Juror No. 15 within the six-week trial was not the person summoned in April to serve within the case, Heard’s legal professional wrote in a five-page memo filed Friday in Virginia’s Fairfax Circuit Courtroom.
As an alternative, the submitting suggests Juror No. 15 was a youthful particular person with the identical final identify who “apparently” lives on the identical tackle.
“Because the Courtroom little question agrees, it’s deeply troubling for a person not summoned for jury obligation Nonetheless to look for jury obligation and serve on a jury, particularly in a case corresponding to this,” the submitting stated.
Depp sued his ex-wife over a December 2018 op-ed Heard wrote in The Washington Submit describing herself as “a public determine representing home abuse.” The piece didn’t point out Depp by identify. A lot of the testimony centered on whether or not Heard had been bodily and sexually abused, as she claimed. Depp stated he by no means hit Heard and that she was the abuser.
After a televised trial that was a spectacle, the jury present in Depp’s favor on all three of his claims regarding particular statements within the 2018 piece.
On June 1, the jury determined that Depp ought to obtain $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, however the choose lowered the punitive damages award to $350,000 beneath a state cap.
In a break up choice, the jury additionally discovered that Heard was defamed by one among Depp’s attorneys, who accused her of making an in depth hoax that included roughing up their condominium to look worse for police. The jury awarded her $2 million US in damages.
Heard has beforehand stated she plans to attraction the decision.
Information of Friday’s submitting was first reported by Deadlinewhich posted the doc on-line.
Filings allege mistaken juror appeared
The memo expanded upon earlier post-trial motions filed by Heard’s authorized group that requested the choose to throw out the decision towards her. These motions had raised the likelihood that one of many jurors might not have been correctly vetted by the court docket.
The most recent submitting stated a “jury panel checklist” within the case included an individual who would have been 77 on the time of the trial.
Voter registration info lists two people with the identical final identify “apparently” residing on the identical tackle, stated the submitting, through which the names had been redacted.
“The person who appeared for jury obligation with this identify was clearly the youthful one. Thus, the 52-year-old … sitting on the jury for six weeks was by no means summoned for jury obligation on April 11,” violating Heard’s due course of rights, the submitting stated.
The Related Press despatched emails in search of remark Sunday to a consultant for Depp and two of his attorneys.