A jury completed a second day of deliberations Tuesday with out reaching a verdict within the defamation claims of Johnny Depp and ex-wife Amber Heard over their unstable and sad marriage.
The seven-person civil jury heard closing arguments Friday and deliberated for about two hours earlier than leaving for the lengthy Memorial Day weekend. Jurors then deliberated one other seven hours on Tuesday. They’re scheduled to renew deliberations Wednesday in Fairfax County Circuit Courtroom.
Depp is suing Heard for $50 million, accusing her of libelling him with a 2018 op-ed she wrote describing herself as “a public determine representing home abuse.” Heard filed a $100-million counterclaim towards the Pirates of the Caribbean star after his lawyer referred to as her allegations a hoax. Every accuses the opposite of destroying their profession.
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Testimony in the course of the six-week trial featured a litany of lurid particulars of their brief marriage. Heard testified that Depp bodily or sexually assaulted her greater than a dozen occasions. Throughout his testimony, Depp testified that he by no means struck Heard, that she concocted the abuse allegations, and that she was the one who bodily attacked him, a number of occasions.
Throughout closing arguments, either side instructed the jury {that a} verdict of their favor would give their purchasers their lives again.
On Tuesday, Depp’s attorneys requested Decide Penney Azcarate to instruct the jury to ignore a portion of the closing argument made by Heard’s legal professional.
Of their written movement, Depp’s attorneys mentioned Heard’s lawyer instructed the jury that its choice within the case would ship a message to “each sufferer of home abuse in all places.” Heard legal professional Benjamin Rottenborn instructed the jury {that a} ruling towards Heard “sends a message that it doesn’t matter what you do as an abuse sufferer, you at all times must do extra.”
“Irrespective of how trustworthy you might be about your personal imperfections and your personal shortcomings in a relationship, you need to be excellent to ensure that folks to imagine you. Don’t ship that message,” Rottenborn mentioned.
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Depp’s attorneys argued that Rottenborn’s argument improperly requested the jury to concentrate on a bigger social goal than the case they’re being requested to resolve.
“Such argument by Ms. Heard’s counsel improperly invitations the jury to resolve the case ‘primarily based on ardour and prejudice’ and a particular jury instruction is critical to remedy this impropriety,” Depp’s legal professionals argued.
The choose instructed Depp’s attorneys in court docket that she wouldn’t entertain the movement as a result of the case is within the arms of the jury now.
A public relations agency for Heard didn’t instantly reply to a request in search of touch upon the movement.
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