FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — One of the jurors within the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial served improperly, an lawyer for Heard alleged in a current submitting that requested the courtroom to declare a mistrial and order a brand new trial.
“Newly discovered facts” present Juror No. 15 within the six-week trial was not the person summoned in April to serve within the case, Heard’s lawyer wrote in a five-page memo filed Friday in Virginia’s Fairfax Circuit Court.
Instead, the submitting suggests Juror No. 15 was a youthful particular person with the identical final identify who “apparently” lives on the identical handle.
“As the Court no doubt agrees, 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 case such as this,” the submitting stated.
Depp sued his ex-wife over a December 2018 op-ed Heard wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” Much 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 became a spectacle, the jury found in Depp’s favor on all three of his claims regarding particular statements within the 2018 piece.
The jury determined Depp ought to obtain $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages, however the decide decreased the punitive damages award to $350,000 underneath a state cap.
Heard has beforehand stated she plans to enchantment the decision.
News of Friday’s submitting was first reported by Deadline, which posted the doc on-line.
The memo expanded upon earlier post-trial motions filed by Heard’s authorized group that requested the decide to throw out the decision in opposition to her. Those motions had raised the likelihood that one of many jurors could not have been correctly vetted by the courtroom.
The newest submitting stated a “jury panel list” within the case included an individual who would have been 77 on the time of the trial. Voter registration information lists two people with the identical final identify “apparently” residing on the identical handle, stated the submitting, by which the names had been redacted.
“The individual who appeared for jury duty with this name was obviously the younger one. Thus, the 52-year-old … sitting on the jury for six weeks was never summoned for jury duty on April 11,” violating Heard’s due course of rights, the submitting stated.
The Associated Press despatched emails searching for remark Sunday to a consultant for Depp and two of his attorneys.
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