Jury begins deliberations after hearing Depp and Heard want their lives back

WARNING: This story comprises particulars of intimate accomplice violence.

After a six-week trial during which Johnny Depp and Amber Heard recounted the nasty particulars of their quick marriage, each side informed a jury the very same factor Friday — they need their lives again.

Heard “ruined his life by falsely telling the world she was a survivor of home abuse by the hands of Mr. Depp,” Depp lawyer Camille Vasquez informed the jury in closing arguments in his libel trial towards his ex-wife. 

Heard’s legal professionals, in the meantime, mentioned Depp ruined Heard’s life by launching a smear marketing campaign towards her when she divorced him and publicly accused him of assault in 2016.

“In Mr. Depp’s world, you do not depart Mr. Depp,” mentioned Heard’s lawyer, J. Benjamin Rottenborn. “If you happen to do, he’ll begin a marketing campaign of worldwide humiliation towards you.”

Depp is hoping the trial will assist restore his fame, although it has become a spectacle of a vicious marriage, with broadcast cameras within the courtroom capturing each twist to an more and more rapt viewers as followers weighed in on social media and lined up in a single day for courtroom seats.

“This case for Mr. Depp has by no means been about cash,” mentioned Depp lawyer Benjamin Chew. “It’s about Mr. Depp’s fame and liberating him from the jail during which he has lived for the final six years.”

Depp is suing Heard for $50 million US in Virginia’s Fairfax County Circuit Courtroom over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote within the Washington Publish describing herself as “a public determine representing home abuse.” Whereas the article does not point out Depp’s title, his legal professionals say he was defamed by it due to Heard’s earlier public allegations towards him.

Heard filed a $100 million US counterclaim towards Depp after his lawyer known as her allegations a hoax. 

Although the counterclaim has acquired much less consideration on the trial, Heard lawyer Elaine Bredehoft mentioned it offers an avenue for the jury to compensate Heard for the abuse Depp inflicted on her even after they break up by orchestrating a smear marketing campaign.

“We’re asking you to lastly maintain this man accountable,” she informed the jury. “He has by no means accepted duty for something in his life.”

Jury deliberations start Friday

The seven-person civil jury started its deliberations at 3 p.m. native time on Friday and completed for the day about two hours later. They are going to resume Tuesday.

Depp says he by no means struck Heard and that she made up the abuse allegations to realize a bonus in divorce proceedings. He has mentioned he was typically bodily attacked by Heard.

“There may be an abuser on this courtroom, however it isn’t Mr. Depp,” Vasquez mentioned.

In the course of the trial, Heard testified about greater than a dozen episodes of bodily and sexual assault that she mentioned Depp inflicted on her. On Thursday, Heard informed jurors {that a} harassment marketing campaign waged towards her by Depp has left her humiliated and scared for her life resulting from a number of demise threats, and mentioned she simply needs “Johnny to go away me alone.”

Vasquez, in her closing, famous that Heard needed to revise her testimony in regards to the first time she mentioned she was struck. Heard mentioned Depp hit her after she inadvertently laughed at one among his tattoos. Heard initially mentioned it occurred in 2013 — after a fairy-tale 12 months of courtship and romance — however later corrected herself to say it occurred in 2012, very early of their relationship.

“Now on this courtroom she has out of the blue erased a whole 12 months of magic,” Vasquez mentioned.

Jurors have seen a number of pictures of Heard with marks and bruises on her face, however some pictures present solely delicate redness, and others present extra extreme bruising.

Vasquez accused Heard of doctoring the pictures and mentioned proof that Heard has embellished a few of her accidents is proof that every one her claims of abuse are unfounded.

“You both imagine all of it, or none of it,” she mentioned. “Both she is a sufferer of ugly, horrible abuse, or she is a lady who’s prepared to say completely something.”

In Heard’s closing, Rottenborn mentioned the nitpicking over Heard’s proof of abuse ignores the actual fact there’s overwhelming proof on her behalf and sends a harmful message to home violence victims.

“If you happen to did not take footage, it did not occur,” Rottenborn mentioned. “If you happen to did take footage, they’re pretend. If you happen to did not inform your mates, they’re mendacity. If you happen to did inform your mates, they’re a part of the hoax.”

And he rejected Vasquez’s suggestion that if the jury thinks Heard is perhaps embellishing on a single act of abuse that they should disregard all the things she says. He mentioned Depp’s libel declare should fail if Heard suffered even a single incident of abuse.

“They’re making an attempt to trick you into pondering Amber must be good to win,” Rottenborn mentioned.

When the jury deliberates, it must focus not solely on whether or not there was abuse but in addition whether or not Heard’s op-ed piece may be thought of legally defamatory. The article itself focuses totally on coverage questions of home violence, however Depp’s lawyer level to 2 passages within the article, in addition to a web-based headline that they are saying defamed Depp.

Within the first passage, Heard writes that “two years in the past, I turned a public determine representing home abuse, and I felt the complete power of our tradition’s wrath.” Depp’s legal professionals name it a transparent reference to Depp, on condition that Heard publicly accused Depp of home violence in 2016 — two years earlier than she wrote the article.

In a second passage she states, “I had the uncommon vantage level of seeing, in actual time, how establishments defend males accused of abuse.”

The web headline reads “Amber Heard: I spoke up towards sexual violence — and confronted our tradition’s wrath.”

“She did not point out his title. She did not should,” Chew mentioned. “Everybody knew precisely who and what Ms. Heard was speaking about.”

Heard’s legal professionals mentioned Heard cannot be held chargeable for the headline as a result of she did not write it, and that the 2 passages within the article are usually not in regards to the abuse allegations themselves however how Heard’s life modified after she made them.

Rottenborn informed jurors that even when they have a tendency to imagine Depp’s declare that he by no means abused Heard, he nonetheless cannot win his case as a result of Heard has a First Modification proper to weigh in on issues of public debate.

Assist is offered for anybody who has been abused or assaulted. You possibly can entry disaster strains and native assist providers by way of the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. The Canadian Girls’s Basis’s Signal For Help is a silent, one-handed gesture to make use of in a video name to point that you’re vulnerable to violence at dwelling. ​​If you happen to’re in speedy hazard or worry in your security or that of others round you, please name 911.