- The jury for the trial of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard reached a second day of deliberations on Tuesday.
- The jury asked the judge a question about one of Heard’s alleged defamatory statements.
- The jury asked if they should decide whether Heard’s comment was false or just the headline.
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Johnny Depp and Amber Heard’s trial jury on Tuesday expressed confusion over how they should decide whether Heard defamed Depp.
The jury embarked on a second day of deliberations on Tuesday, after six weeks of testimony in the defamation case.
Depp initially sued Heard for $ 50 million, saying his ex-wife ruined his career by hinting in a 2018 Washington Post article that he had been a victim of domestic violence. When Depp took office during the trial, he claimed that Heard was the real abuser of their relationship.
Heard sued for $ 100 million and spent several days at the booth describing several incidents in which he said Depp had physically and sexually abused him.
On Tuesday, the jury put a question to the judge about the verdict sheet that they were asked to fill out while weighing the competing lawsuits filed by Depp and Heard.
Her question focused on the first of three statements from Heard’s opinion that Depp sued. The statement headlined the article, “Amber Heard: I spoke out against sexual violence and confronted the anger of our culture. That needs to change.”
On the verdict sheet, the jury is asked if it believes the statement is false, which is a key component in proving defamation. If they believe the claim is true, it cannot be defamatory.
The jury was confused about whether they were asked if only the headline was false or if the whole comment was false.
“Question three, is the statement false, does it belong to the headline or does it refer to the content of the statement, everything that is written in the editorial?” asked the jury. Judge Penney Azcarate read the jury’s question to the lawyers on each side.
Azcarate replied to the jury that they should only consider if the headline is false, not if the whole comment is false.
Heard is being sued for two more statements from the publisher, while Heard’s counterclaim to Depp focuses on three statements Depp’s lawyer, Adam Waldman, made to the Daily Mail in 2020, accusing Heard of inventing allegations of domestic violence.
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