After more than 100 hours of testimony, the legal war between the ex-spouses Johnny Depp and Amber Heard has reached its final stages: the jury retired to the council chamber at the end of the last hearing of the trial which took place for six weeks in Fairfax County, Virginia. The seven jurors will have to decide on the petition of the plaintiff who sued his ex-wife (asking for $ 50 million in compensation) for an opinion piece that does not mention him by name, signed by his wife in 2018 which, according to Depp, forever ruined his career. But jurors will also have to rule on Amber Heard’s counter-complaint: the Aquaman actress asks for $ 100 million after Johnny’s lawyer, Adam Waldman, made repeated statements to the press describing the woman’s allegations as false.
The jury must find unanimity on seven questions, including whether or not Heard implied that the subject of his article was Depp and, if so, whether the allegations were false and / or maliciously made. Amber’s counter-case requires the jury to answer six questions, including whether Waldman, acting on behalf of Depp, actually said the sentences attributed to him and whether these claims were false and / or made with the intent to harm. The sentence, however, will not arrive before next Tuesday 31 May. Judge Penney Azcarate dismissed the jury for the weekend. The judge advised them not to read or research anything about the case during these vacation days, nor to share details with “friends, family, colleagues, acquaintances and strangers”. The seven jurors had spent a couple of hours in the council chamber before the work was updated on Tuesday, after the long Memorial Day bridge.