Aquaman actor Amber Heard wants the court to dismiss the verdicts of the last trial of the defamation case against her ex-husband Johnny Depp by declaring it as a mistrial and is requesting to begin a fresh one. Her lawyer pointed out and told the Court that a wrong juror who was not meant to sit among the jury became part of the trial and for this reason, the court should dismiss the verdicts of June 1 and start a fresh hearing.
Amber Heard Requests For A Fresh Trial
Her legal team also requested the court to dismiss the verdicts of the trial on the basis of no evidence found to prove Johnny’s claim that Amber Heard defamed her.
In the defamation trial, Amber was ordered with the decision of a jury in Virginia Court to pay $10 Million to Johnny as compensatory damages and $5 Million as punitive damages, but the judge tanked the punitive damage value to $3.5 Million due to the benchmark set in the state of Virginia. Whereas, Johnny Depp was ordered to pay the $2 Million to Amber with the decision. The jury’s conclusion was that Amber defamed her ex-husband Johnny in a 2018 article, where she framed that she was the victim of domestic violence.
“Ms. Heard had a right to rely on the basic protection, as prescribed by the Virginia Code, that the jurors in this trial would be individuals who were actually summoned for jury duty. In this case, it appears that Juror No. 15 was not, in fact, the same individual as listed on the jury panel. Thus, the 52-year-old- (redacted) sitting on the jury for six weeks was never summoned for jury duty on April 11 and did not ‘appear in the list,’ as required,” said Amber’s Lawyers in a new filing, quoted by Deadline.
Her lawyer said because of this mistake “due process’ had been ‘compromised”, so the court should declare a mistrial which will automatically eradicate the verdicts of the June 1 trial.
“Ms. Heard’s due process was therefore compromised. Under these circumstances, a mistrial should be declared, and a new trial ordered”, Elaine Bredehoft quoted by a news report.
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Previously, Amber Heard’s lawyers also said that Johnny was not entitled to the damages that Jury offered. “There is no evidence of damage to Mr. Depp’s reputation caused by Mrs. Heard’s Op-Ed,” the lawyer said.
