Featured Image Credit: Court TV
Topics: News, Celebrity, Johnny Depp
Ali Condon
As closing arguments begin this Friday, the judge has laid out what Johnny Depp must successfully do to win his suit against Amber Heard.
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Johnny Depp is suing his former partner Amber Heard for $50 million for libel in the state of Virginia, following abuse claims that she made in an op-ed for the Washington Post back in 2018.
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Depp’s legal team argued that the article implies Heard was physically and sexually abused by Depp when they were married, although the article does not refer to him by name.
After six weeks of testimony for the high-profile court case, both legal teams finally wrapped up on Thursday after Johnny Depp's team rested their case.
Before the jury began their deliberations, Judge Penney Azcarate laid out the instructions that jurors must follow during the process.
She noted that in order for jurors to reach a verdict that would favour Amber Heard, they would have to agree that the statements made by Depp's lawyer Adam Waldman were done with malice.
This would justify Amber's $100 million counter-suit against Mr Depp, which claims that Mr Waldman defamed her in statements to the press following her op-ed article.
For a verdict that would favour Johnny Depp, jurors must read the entire 2018 article written by Heard and find that she acted with the knowledge that her statement was false or a wilful disregard of the truth.
Listing out a summary of the issues covered in the case that jurors must consider, Judge Azcarate noted that "Mr Depp has the burden of proof."
Judge Azcarate also noted that the name of each juror would remain confidential for one year 'due to the high-profile nature of this case'.
Although jury deliberations begin today, they could take anywhere from a number of hours to a number of days before they reach a verdict.