''John C. Depp, II v. Amber Laura Heard'' was a trial held in
Fairfax County, Virginia
Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...
, from April 11 to June 1, 2022, that ruled on allegations of
defamation
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
between formerly married American actors
Johnny Depp
John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...
and
Amber Heard
Amber Laura Heard (born April 22, 1986) is an American actress. She had her first leading role in the horror film ''All the Boys Love Mandy Lane'' (2006), and went on to star in films such as '' The Ward'' (2010) and ''Drive Angry'' (2011). Sh ...
. Depp, as
plaintiff
A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the p ...
, filed a complaint of defamation against
defendant
In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case.
Terminology varies from one jurisdic ...
Heard claiming $50 million in
damages
At common law, damages are a remedy in the form of a monetary award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised at ...
; Heard filed
counterclaim
In a court of law, a party's claim is a counterclaim if one party asserts claims in response to the claims of another. In other words, if a plaintiff initiates a lawsuit and a defendant responds to the lawsuit with claims of their own against th ...
s against Depp claiming $100 million in damages.
After first meeting in 2009, Depp and Heard married in February 2015.
In May 2016, at an early stage in their divorce proceedings, Heard claimed that Depp had abused her physically, which he denied. In a separate libel trial in England, in which
Depp sued News Group Newspapers Ltd over an article published in ''
The Sun'', the presiding
judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...
ruled against Depp, stating that "the great majority of alleged assaults of Ms Heard by Mr Depp have been proved to the
civil standard."
Several legal experts suggested that Depp had a smaller chance of winning in the US trial compared to the UK trial.
In the Virginia trial, Depp's claims related to a December 2018
op-ed
An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...
by Heard,
published in ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''. Depp claimed Heard caused new damage to his reputation and career by stating that she had spoken up against "sexual violence" and that "two years ago,
'she''became a public figure representing domestic abuse." Heard's counterclaims included allegations that Adam Waldman, Depp's former lawyer, had defamed her in statements published in the ''
Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'' in 2020. Throughout the trial, Depp's legal team sought to disprove Heard's abuse allegations and to demonstrate that she had been the instigator, rather than the victim, of
intimate partner violence
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is domestic violence by a current or former spouse or partner in an intimate relationship against the other spouse or partner. IPV can take a number of forms, including physical, verbal, emotional, economic and sex ...
. Heard's lawyers defended the op-ed, claiming it to be factual and protected by the
First Amendment
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
.
The
livestreamed
Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but no ...
trial attracted large numbers of viewers and
considerable social media response, the majority of which was sympathetic to Depp and critical of Heard.
News articles about the case generated high levels of social media interaction and renewed debates around topics relating to
domestic violence
Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...
, the
#MeToo movement, and
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
.
The jury ruled that Heard's
op-ed references to "sexual violence" and "domestic abuse" were false and defamed Depp with
actual malice
Actual malice in United States law is a legal requirement imposed upon public officials or public figures when they file suit for libel (defamatory printed communications). Compared to other individuals who are less well known to the general publi ...
and awarded Depp $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages from Heard,
although the court reduced the punitive damages to $350,000 due to a limit imposed by Virginia state law.
They also ruled that Waldman had defamed Heard by falsely alleging that she and her friends "roughed up" Depp's penthouse as part of a "hoax." They awarded Heard $2 million in compensatory damages and $0 in punitive damages from Depp.
Separately, the jury ruled that Waldman's other allegations of Heard's "sexual violence hoax" and "abuse hoax" against Depp had not been proven defamatory.
After the trial ended, Heard put forth motions to set aside the verdict, but was unsuccessful. Then, both Depp and Heard appealed against the respective verdicts. In December 2022, both parties reached a settlement, with Depp's lawyers stating that Depp would receive $1 million.
Background
Depp and Heard's relationship
Actors
Johnny Depp
John Christopher Depp II (born June 9, 1963) is an American actor and musician. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Award ...
and
Amber Heard
Amber Laura Heard (born April 22, 1986) is an American actress. She had her first leading role in the horror film ''All the Boys Love Mandy Lane'' (2006), and went on to star in films such as '' The Ward'' (2010) and ''Drive Angry'' (2011). Sh ...
met in 2009 while filming ''
The Rum Diary''; according to Heard, their relationship began "around the end of 2011 or early 2012".
They got engaged in January 2014 and married on Depp’s private island in the Bahamas, Little Hall's Pond Cay, in February 2015.
Heard filed for divorce on May 23, 2016, and obtained a temporary
restraining order
A restraining order or protective order, is an order used by a court to protect a person in a situation involving alleged domestic violence, child abuse, assault, harassment, stalking, or sexual assault.
Restraining and personal protection or ...
against Depp.
In response, he alleged that she was "attempting to secure a premature financial resolution by alleging abuse".
Heard testified about the alleged abuse in a deposition during their divorce litigation, alleging that Depp had been "verbally and physically abusive" throughout their relationship, usually while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The divorce received much publicity, with images of Heard's alleged injuries published by the media.
A settlement was reached in August 2016, and the divorce was finalized in January 2017. Heard withdrew the restraining order, and she and Depp released a joint statement stating that their relationship was "intensely passionate and periodically volatile, but always bound by love. Neither party has made false accusations for financial gain. There was never any intent of physical or emotional harm."
[
Depp paid Heard a divorce settlement of $7 million, which she pledged to donate to the ]American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
and the Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) is a nationally ranked, freestanding acute care children's hospital in the East Hollywood district of Los Angeles, on Sunset Boulevard at the corner of Vermont Avenue. The hospital has been academically affi ...
. The settlement included a non-disclosure agreement
A non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is a legal contract or part of a contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish ...
(NDA) preventing either party from discussing their relationship publicly.
''Depp v News Group Newspapers Ltd''
In April 2018, UK tabloid '' The Sun'' published an article with an online title that described Depp as a "wife beater" and, in June 2018, Depp sued News Group Newspapers, the publisher of ''The Sun'', and then executive editor Dan Wootton
Daniel John William Wootton (born 2 March 1983) is a New Zealand born British journalist and broadcaster. He is based in the United Kingdom and holds both New Zealand and British citizenship. He was executive editor of '' The Sun'' newspaper.
I ...
for libel
Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
.[ Both Depp and Heard testified in the July 2020 trial, which focused on evaluating 14 alleged incidents of abuse.] November 2020, judge Andrew Nicol ruled in favor of the publisher as the great majority of Depp's alleged assaults had been proven to a civil standard and were found to be " substantially true".[ The verdict found that Depp had assaulted Heard in 12 of the 14 alleged incidents and put her in fear of her life.] Mr Justice Nicol had rejected Depp’s contention that Heard was a “gold-digger
Gold digger is a term for a person, typically a woman, who engages in a type of transactional relationship for money rather than love. If it turns into marriage, it is a type of marriage of convenience.
Etymology and usage
The term "gold ...
”, saying in his ruling: “Her donation of the seven million US dollars to charity is hardly the act one would expect of a gold-digger.”
After the verdict, Depp resigned from the ''Fantastic Beasts'' film series at the request of Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...
, its production company. In March 2021, the Court of Appeal
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...
rejected Depp's request to appeal the verdict, concluding that the appeal had "no real prospect of success". Lawyers for Depp had argued that he had not received a fair hearing and that Heard was an unreliable witness, but the appeals judges concluded he had a "full and fair" trial, and that "the judge based his conclusions on each of the incidents on his extremely detailed review of the evidence specific to each incident ..in an approach of that kind there was little need or room for the judge to give weight to any general assessment of Ms. Heard's credibility." According to ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', the use of material from the UK trial has been limited in the US case, but the specifics have not been disclosed publicly.[
]
Heard's op-ed in ''The Washington Post''
In December 2018, ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' published an op-ed
An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...
written by Heard and titled "Amber Heard: I spoke up against sexual violence—and faced our culture's wrath. That has to change." In the article, Heard stated: "Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture's wrath for women who speak out. ... I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse." She further stated that, as a result of this, she had lost a film role and an advertising campaign for a global fashion brand.[ The op-ed called for Congress to re-authorize the ]Violence Against Women Act
The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (VAWA) is a United States federal law (Title IV of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, ) signed by President Bill Clinton on September 13, 1994. The Act provided $1.6 billion toward investig ...
and did not explicitly mention Depp by name.
Waldman's comments in the ''Daily Mail''
Matters from Heard's counterclaims pursued through the trial related to three statements made by Depp's lawyer, Adam Waldman, and published by the ''Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'' in April and June 2020.
First, Waldman stated that "Amber Heard and her friends in the media used fake sexual violence allegations as both sword and shield, depending on their needs. They have selected some of her sexual violence hoax 'facts' as the sword, inflicting them on the public and Mr. Depp."
Waldman's second statement regarded a 2016 incident in Depp and Heard's Hollywood penthouse: "Quite simply this was an ambush, a hoax. They set Mr. Depp up by calling the cops but the first attempt didn't do the trick. The officers came to the penthouses, thoroughly searched and interviewed, and left after seeing no damage to face or property. So, Amber and her friends spilled a little wine and roughed the place up, got their stories straight under the direction of a lawyer and publicist, and then placed a second call to 911."
Third, Waldman stated: "We have reached the beginning of the end of Ms. Heard's abuse hoax against Johnny Depp."
Trial
In February 2019, Depp sued Heard over her December 2018 op-ed in ''The Washington Post''. Depp claimed that Heard's allegations were part of an elaborate hoax against him and repeated his allegation that Heard had been the one who violently abused him. In August 2020, Heard countersued Depp, including the allegation that he had coordinated "a harassment campaign via Twitter and orchestrated online petitions in an effort to get her fired from ''Aquaman
Aquaman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Paul Norris and Mort Weisinger, the character debuted in ''More Fun Comics'' #73 (November 1941). The character is a pastiche of Namor. Initially ...
'' and L'Oréal
L'Oréal S.A. () is a French personal care company headquartered in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine with a registered office in Paris. It is the world's largest cosmetics company and has developed activities in the field concentrating on hair color, sk ...
." The trial was held at the Fairfax County
Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...
Circuit Court. The location was chosen on the basis that the online edition and the print edition of ''The Washington Post'' op-ed are published in the county.
Pre-trial developments
In June 2020, lawyers who withdrew from Heard's legal team included the Time's Up founder, Roberta Kaplan
Roberta Ann Kaplan (born 1966) is an American lawyer focusing on commercial litigation and public interest matters. Kaplan successfully argued before the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of LGBT rights activist Edith Windsor, in ''Uni ...
. In October 2020, the judge ruling on early pre-trial motions revoked permission for lawyer Adam Waldman to represent Depp in Virginia after Waldman leaked confidential information covered by a protective order to the media. In August 2021, a New York judge ruled that the American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
(ACLU) had to disclose documents related to Heard's charity pledge to the organization for which the ACLU would later demand payment. Also in August 2021, Judge Penney S. Azcarate overruled a plea
In legal terms, a plea is simply an answer to a claim made by someone in a criminal case under common law using the adversarial system. Colloquially, a plea has come to mean the assertion by a defendant at arraignment, or otherwise in response ...
filed by Heard's lawyers for having the defamation suit dismissed on the basis of the verdict in Depp's lawsuit against the publishers of ''The Sun,'' with Azcarate citing that: Heard had been a witness in the UK case (as opposed to a defendant), the facts alleged were different (Heard's allegedly defamatory statements were made after the English case commenced), and the parties had not been subject to the same discovery
Discovery may refer to:
* Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown
* Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown
* Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence
Discovery, The Discovery ...
procedures as in the United States. In February 2022, Azcarate ordered to permit the broadcast of courtroom proceedings.
Actors Paul Bettany
Paul Bettany (born 27 May 1971) is an English actor. He is mostly known for his roles as J.A.R.V.I.S. and Vision in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, recently starring in the Disney+ miniseries ''WandaVision'' (2021), for which he was nominated fo ...
, James Franco
James Edward Franco (born April 19, 1978) is an American actor and filmmaker. For his role in '' 127 Hours'' (2010), he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor. Franco is known for his roles in films, such as Sam Raimi's ''Spider-Ma ...
, and Ellen Barkin
Ellen Rona Barkin (born April 16, 1954) is an American actress and a producer. Her breakthrough role was in the 1982 film '' Diner'', and in the following years, she had starring roles in films such as ''Tender Mercies'' (1983), ''Eddie and the ...
and businessman Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The Bori ...
were mentioned as being expected to testify.
Jury selection
On April 11, 2022, the trial began in Fairfax County, Virginia
Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...
with a day to finalize jury selection
Jury selection is the selection of the people who will serve on a jury during a jury trial. The group of potential jurors (the "jury pool", also known as the ''venire'') is first selected from among the community using a reasonably random method. ...
.
Opening statements
Opening statement
An opening statement is generally the first occasion that the trier of fact (jury or judge) has to hear from a lawyer in a trial, aside possibly from questioning during voir dire. The opening statement is generally constructed to serve as a "roa ...
s were made on April 12, 2022. Lawyers representing Depp accused Heard of fabricating domestic abuse accusations against Depp to further her career, saying that Heard made such allegations because Depp had asked for a divorce. They argued that, while Heard's 2018 op-ed did not mention Depp, it was clear by implication that it referred to him, and that Heard's writing in the piece ("Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse") was a reference to her May 2016 restraining order request, in which she alleged that Depp had physically abused her. Depp's lawyers discussed Heard appearing in public with a bruised face on May 27, 2016, accusing her of staging the injury, citing that Depp had not met her since May 21, 2016, and witnesses did not see her with the injury immediately after May 21, 2016.
Heard's lawyers claimed that Depp had physically and sexually abused Heard on multiple occasions throughout their relationship, usually triggered by his addiction to both alcohol and drugs. They accused Depp of seeking to "humiliate eard haunt her, wreck her career" with the Virginia lawsuit and to turn the case into a "soap opera".[ They further argued that the ]First Amendment
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
protected Heard's right to express her views in the op-ed, which was mostly focused on a broad discussion of domestic violence and did not explicitly mention Depp's name. Finally, Heard's lawyers stated that the allegations had not changed Depp's reputation, as they had become public knowledge two years prior to the op-ed, and that Depp had instead ruined his Hollywood career himself with his drinking and drug use; this made him "unreliable" in the eyes of major film studios.
Testimony
Witness lists were submitted by both parties, prior to trial.
Witness testimony began on April 12, following the parties' presentation of their opening statements, and ended on May 26.
Closing arguments
Following the judge's reading of the trial's jury instructions
Jury instructions, directions to the jury, or judge's charge are legal rules that jurors should follow when deciding a case. They are a type of jury control procedure to support a fair trial.
Description
Jury instructions are the set of legal ...
on May 27, 2022, Depp's and Heard's legal teams presented their closing argument
A closing argument, summation, or summing up is the concluding statement of each party's counsel reiterating the important arguments for the trier of fact, often the jury, in a court case. A closing argument occurs after the presentation of eviden ...
s.
Depp's legal team maintained that Heard was the abuser in their relationship and that Heard's allegations against Depp were untrue and had ruined his life. They asked the jurors to "give him his life back". "You either believe all of it or none of it. Either Mr. Depp assaulted Ms. Heard with a bottle in Australia, or Ms. Heard got up on that stand, in front of all of you, and made up that horrific tale of abuse," lawyer Camille Vasquez
Camille Vasquez (born July 6, 1984) is an American attorney known for representing actor Johnny Depp in the defamation case that he brought against his ex-wife Amber Heard.
Early life and education
Vasquez was born in San Francisco, California ...
told the jury. "An act of profound cruelty not just to Mr. Depp but to true survivors of domestic abuse." Vasquez told the court that Heard "came into this courtroom ready to give the performance of her lifetime ... and she gave it." Vasquez also argued that Heard "burns bridges" and "her close friends don't show up for her," because, according to Vasquez, apart from Heard's sister, every person who personally testified on behalf of Heard was a "paid expert", whereas many witnesses personally testified for Depp in court.
Heard's legal team maintained that Depp did abuse Heard, and that even if he did not abuse her, the op-ed was not libelous as it did not mention Depp by name nor directly address her allegations against him. They told jurors to "think about the message that Mr. Depp and his attorneys are sending to Amber and victims of domestic abuse." "If you didn't take pictures, it didn't happen," Benjamin Rottenborn, a lawyer for Heard, said. "If you didn't seek medical attention, you weren't injured." He claimed Depp "cannot and will not take responsibility. ..It's all somebody else's fault." He told jurors that "if Amber was abused by Mr. Depp even one time, then she wins." Rottenborn accused Depp of "victim blaming at its most disgusting".
Verdict
On June 1, 2022, after nearly two days of deliberations, the jury found that Depp had proven all the elements of defamation for all three statements from Heard's 2018 op-ed, including that the statements were false, and that Heard defamed Depp with actual malice
Actual malice in United States law is a legal requirement imposed upon public officials or public figures when they file suit for libel (defamatory printed communications). Compared to other individuals who are less well known to the general publi ...
. The jury awarded Depp $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages from Heard. The punitive damages, however, were reduced to $350,000 due to a limit imposed by Virginia state law.
In regard to Heard's counterclaim, the jury found the second
''The Second'' is the second studio album by Canadian-American rock band Steppenwolf, released in October 1968 on ABC Dunhill Records. The album contains one of Steppenwolf's most famous songs, " Magic Carpet Ride". The background of the origin ...
of the three contested statements that Depp's former lawyer Adam Waldman had published in the ''Daily Mail'' to be defamatory and false, defaming Heard with actual malice. Regarding the other two contested statements, the jurors concluded that Heard's attorneys had not proven all the elements of defamation.[ Heard was awarded $2 million in compensatory damages from Depp but no punitive damages.][
]
Reactions
The trial drew much attention from supporters of both Depp and Heard as well as the general public. At the start of the trial, several legal experts suggested that Depp had a smaller chance of winning than he did in the previous UK trial, citing the strong free speech protections in the US.
Livestream
The trial was live-streamed, with very high viewing figures and video clips being widely shared on social media. The president of the ''Law & Crime'' network, Rachel Stockman, observed that the average daily viewership on their app was 50x higher than before the trial.
The decision by Judge Azcarate to allow livestreaming, a rarity in Virginia courts, has been criticized. Some observers expressed concern that it would discourage victims of domestic violence from speaking out; Michele Dauber
Michele Landis Dauber is the Frederick I. Richman Professor at the Stanford Law School, and a Professor of Sociology, by courtesy.
Early life
Dauber graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1993. She earned a JD from Northwestern ...
, a professor at Stanford Law School, stated, "Allowing this trial to be televised is the single worst decision I can think of in the context of intimate partner violence and sexual violence in recent history, it has ramifications way beyond this case."
In a pre-trial hearing, Heard’s team tried unsuccessfully to exclude the cameras, while Depp’s lawyer welcomed the cameras and stated that "Mr. Depp believes in transparency." Judge Azcarate, who worried that reporters might otherwise have come to the courthouse and potentially create hazardous conditions, had said, "I don’t see any good cause not to do it."
Social media coverage
Data collected by Newswhip
NewsWhip is a social media engagement tracking firm created by Paul Quigley and Andrew Mullaney in 2011. The company tracks content by amount and location of user engagement and also tracks audience interests and changes in interests over time.
_ ...
from April 4 to May 16, 2022, indicated that news articles about the trial had generated more social media interactions per article in the United States than all other significant news topics, including the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion on abortion and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...
.
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
, TikTok
TikTok, known in China as Douyin (), is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes.
TikTok is an international version ...
, and Instagram
Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...
users expressed opinions about the case or rallied against others doing the same. Those posting about the trial on social media were seen to mostly support Depp and oppose Heard. Videos carrying the hashtag
A hashtag is a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash (also known as pound or octothorpe) sign, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as Twitter or Instagram as a form of user-generated ...
#justiceforjohnnydepp had attained over 18 billion views on TikTok by the trial's conclusion. ''BuzzFeed News
''BuzzFeed News'' is an American news website published by BuzzFeed. It has published a number of high-profile scoops, including the Steele dossier, for which it was heavily criticized, and the FinCEN Files. Since its establishment in 2011, it ...
'' reported that, between April 25 and 29, 2022, there were 1,667 posts uploaded to Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
using the hashtag #JusticeForJohnnyDepp, with over 7 million total interactions, i.e., likes and shares between them. In comparison, Heard only had 16 posts in support, with 10,415 interactions. Additionally, on TikTok, videos tagged with #JusticeForAmberHeard had over 21 million combined views, while videos tagged with #JusticeForJohnnyDepp had over 5 billion combined views as of April 29.
Two of Heard's expert witnesses, psychiatrists Dawn Hughes and David Spiegel, had their WebMD
WebMD is an American corporation known primarily as an online publisher of news and information pertaining to human health and well-being. The site includes information pertaining to drugs. It is one of the top healthcare websites.
It was foun ...
profiles targeted by negative comments following their appearances during the trial. Clips of the trial were used to create memes, compilation or reaction videos, with multiple such videos going viral
Viral phenomena or viral sensation are objects or patterns that are able to replicate themselves or convert other objects into copies of themselves when these objects are exposed to them. Analogous to the way in which viruses propagate, the ter ...
. A compilation of Heard's lawyer's repeated objections to Depp's testimony had gathered 30 million views on TikTok and 15 million views on YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
as of April 29, 2022. Other viral TikTok trends included videos of users acting out Heard's testimony, or making "aroused facial expressions" over her testimony of sexual abuse.
Misinformation was widely shared, with researchers identifying bots artificially spreading content. Many social media users falsely alleged that Heard copied quotes from the film ''The Talented Mr. Ripley'' in her testimony. When other social media users further accused Heard of copying quotes from other films, Snopes
''Snopes'' , formerly known as the ''Urban Legends Reference Pages'', is a Fact checking, fact-checking website. It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet. The site has also been see ...
concluded that many of the supposedly copied phrases were "brief" and "generic language that also happens to have turned up in movies", presenting a phenomenon of confirmation bias
Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values. People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring ...
. Widely-shared falsehoods that Heard was using cocaine on the stand were also disproven. In May 2022, the media non-profit The Citizens and '' Vice World News'' reported that the conservative website ''The Daily Wire
''The Daily Wire'' is an American conservative news website and media company founded in 2015 by political commentator Ben Shapiro and film director Jeremy Boreing. The company is a major publisher on Facebook, and produces podcasts such as ' ...
'' had spent between $35,000 and $47,000 on Facebook and Instagram advertisements and have promoted "misleading information about the trial" and "anti-Amber Heard propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
".
Journalist Amelia Tait of ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' said that ''Heard v. Depp'' had turned into "trial by TikTok", stating that the case had become "a source of comedy" on social media. Similar themes were noted by journalists at ''BuzzFeed News
''BuzzFeed News'' is an American news website published by BuzzFeed. It has published a number of high-profile scoops, including the Steele dossier, for which it was heavily criticized, and the FinCEN Files. Since its establishment in 2011, it ...
'', ''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'', and '' Vanity Fair''.
Amanda Hess, a critic writing for ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', opined that the broadcasting of the trial "is an invitation for the proceedings to be deliberately, even gleefully tailored to a viewer's whim", with internet platforms like TikTok and YouTube being "practically built to manipulate raw visual materials in the service of a personality cult, harassment campaign or branding opportunity." Shannon Keating, a culture writer and editor for ''BuzzFeed News'', wrote that the "social media frenzy around this case was clearly fueled by savvy PR", bots, and conservative media advertising, with the result that "lots of people have happily accepted the propaganda as sacrosanct."
Bill Goodykoontz of ''The Arizona Republic
''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily newspaper published in Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain. Copies are sold at $2 daily or at $3 ...
'' criticized the coverage of the trial on social media, stating that "Depp and Heard are real people with real problems, after all, not just meme fodder and hashtag subjects," and that "the vile nature of some of the misogynistic tweets and TikTok videos posted about Heard were toxic masculinity
Toxic masculinity is a set of certain male behaviors associated with harm to society and men themselves. Traditional stereotypes of men as socially dominant, along with related traits such as misogyny and homophobia, can be considered "toxic" d ...
at its worst." Katherine Denkinson of ''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' compared the backlash on social media against Heard and her supporters during the trial with Gamergate
Gamergate may refer to:
* Gamergate (ant), a worker ant that can store sperm and reproduce sexually
* Gamergate (harassment campaign), targeting women in the video game industry
* Lt. Gamergate, a character in the ''Adventure Time'' episode " Den ...
, claiming that "the anti-Amber train has been expertly commandeered by the alt-right
The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...
." Sunny Hundal
Sunny is a daytime weather condition. It may refer to:
People
* Sunny (name), including a list of people and characters with the name
* Sunny (singer), member of Girls' Generation
* Sunny, of Sue and Sunny, who also recorded as a solo artist
...
of ''The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'', commenting about positive online content about Depp and negative online content about Heard, opined that even as Depp "continued to entertain people during the trial", "being an entertainer doesn't automatically mean you're a good person. And yet many simply cannot get their head around this idea."
The intense coverage of the trial and the fact that it was live-streamed made it an unusual case. Legal commentators criticized the fact that jury members in the trial were not sequestered and believe that the social media coverage may have had an influence on the final verdict. During the trial, the judge asked the jurors to refrain from reading about the case online, even instructing them to turn off their cell phones for its duration. Paula Todd
Paula Todd is a Canadian multimedia journalist, investigative author, broadcaster, and lawyer. She is a professor in the School of Media at Seneca College, and is a frequent speaker on cyberabuse, Internet culture, writing, reporting, literacy ...
, a lawyer and media professor, raised the question of how many of the jury members would listen to the judge's instructions to avoid accessing online coverage. Law professor Mary Anne Franks
Mary Anne Franks is an American legal scholar, author, activist, and media commentator. She is a professor of law and the Michael R. Klein Distinguished Scholar Chair at the University of Miami School of Law, where she teaches First Amendment law, ...
claimed that she encountered out-of-context, distorted depictions of the trial despite trying to avoid reading about it and stated that "it's crazy to think they are not going to be influenced by what's happening on social media." Carl Tobias, a University of Richmond law professor, stated that "It wasn't a typical trial" and that he "was pretty surprised about the verdict". He also stated "I don't envy the judge—or the jurors—because it's hard to protect them from these influences" and stated that this case could have an effect on the role of juries and a person's right to a fair trial.
Comments by juror
Following the trial, a male juror was interviewed by ''Good Morning America
''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. Th ...
''. He stated that "Social media did not impact us": "We followed the evidence. We didn't take into account anything outside ... They were very serious accusations and a lot of money involved. So we weren't taking it lightly." He also commented that "none of us were really fans of either one of them." Depp and Heard "were both abusive to each other" but that Heard's team failed to prove that Depp's abuse was physical. "They had their husband-wife arguments. They were both yelling at each other, I don't think that makes either of them right or wrong ... But to rise to the level of what she was claiming, there wasn’t enough or any evidence that really supported what she was saying".[ The juror opined that Heard's testimony was not "believable" because it "seemed like she was able to flip the switch on her emotions", while Depp "seemed a little more real in terms of how he responded".]
''The Washington Post''
On June 2, 2022, ''The Washington Post'' affixed an editor's note to Heard's 2018 op-ed to notify readers of the defamation suit and its outcome, reading, "On June 1, 2022, ..a jury found Heard liable on three
3 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
3, three, or III may also refer to:
* AD 3, the third year of the AD era
* 3 BC, the third year before the AD era
* March, the third month
Books
* '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...
counts. ..The jury separately found that Depp, through his lawyer Adam Waldman, defamed Heard in one
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
of three counts in her countersuit."
Other
Various columnists, legal experts, and observers on social media reacted strongly to the verdict. Legal experts considered the verdict unusual; defamation suits by public figures are rarely successful in the United States, relevant case law being ''New York Times Co. v. Sullivan
''New York Times Co. v. Sullivan'', 376 U.S. 254 (1964), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution's freedom of speech protections limit the ability of American public officials to sue for ...
'' and the subsequent ''Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts
''Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts'', 388 U.S. 130 (1967), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court establishing the standard of First Amendment protection against defamation claims brought by private individuals.
Background
The case involve ...
''. ''New York Times'' reporter Jeremy W. Peters
Jeremy W. Peters is an American journalist, author and reporter for ''The New York Times''. He has covered three presidential elections for the newspaper, most recently the 2020 presidential election. He is an MSNBC contributor, and has also ap ...
said that, in publishing allegations of abuse, "both ..women and the press assume the considerable risk that comes with antagonizing the rich, powerful and litigious." Psychology professor Jennifer Freyd
Jennifer Joy Freyd (; born October 16, 1957, in Providence, Rhode Island) is an American researcher, author, educator, and speaker. Freyd is an extensively published scholar who is best known for her theories of betrayal trauma, DARVO, institu ...
, who coined the term Darvo
DARVO (an acronym for "deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender") is a reaction that perpetrators of wrongdoing, particularly sexual offenders, may display in response to being held accountable for their behavior. Some researchers indicate ...
(deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender), stated that "there has been a lot of Darvo" in this case, with "an overwhelming case for Depp on social media". Dan Novack of ''The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' argued that the verdict concluded a "fair trial" and was not a markedly different interpretation of the First Amendment, which he says remains "enormously protective of media reporting on credible accusations of sexual abuse. It is telling that Depp did not name the ACLU ..or ''The Washington Post''."
Columnists, including feminist writers and researchers in intimate partner violence, considered the verdict a backlash against feminism and the #MeToo movement and predicted a chilling effect
In a legal context, a chilling effect is the inhibition or discouragement of the legitimate exercise of natural and legal rights by the threat of legal sanction. A chilling effect may be caused by legal actions such as the passing of a law, the ...
on the speech of those victims of domestic violence who might fear being sued for defamation or disregarded without extensive photographic and medical evidence. Others argued that the verdict was in fact an expansion of #MeToo to male victims of intimate partner violence and a "victory in the battle against cancel culture". Some were skeptical of the trial's long-term effect, arguing that the trial's context was too unusual to be indicative of #MeToo's reversal. Leading sexual assault lawyer Debra Katz
Debra S. Katz is an American civil rights and employment lawyer and a founding partner of Katz Banks Kumin (formerly Katz, Marshall & Banks) in Washington, D.C. She is best known for representing alleged victims of sexual assault and sexual haras ...
described the trial as having unique celebrity, "dysfunction", and "craziness" but judged that the ''Depp v. Heard'' verdict was less "consequential" to #MeToo compared to Harvey Weinstein
Harvey Weinstein (; born March 19, 1952) is an American former film producer and convicted sex offender. He and his brother, Bob Weinstein, co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced several successful independent films inclu ...
losing his appeal for his rape conviction the next day. Tarana Burke
Tarana Burke (born September 12, 1973) is an American activist from The Bronx, New York, who started the MeToo movement. In 2006, Burke began using MeToo to help other women with similar experiences to stand up for themselves. Over a decade late ...
, generally considered the founder of #MeToo, tweeted that "The 'me too' movement isn't dead, this system is dead .. When you get the verdict you want, 'the movement works' – when you don't, it's dead ..This movement is very much alive." Jack Houghton, digital editor of Sky News Australia
Sky News Australia is an Australian news channel owned by News Corp Australia. Originally launched on 19 February 1996, it broadcasts rolling news coverage throughout the day, while its prime time lineup is dedicated to opinion-based programs f ...
, deemed Vasquez's cross-examination to have showed the public Heard's lack of credibility while further considered the ruling of Waldman having defamed Heard to be "hardly a verdict that a cabal of sexist jurors would render".
An April survey conducted by Morning Consult found that about 68% of US adults had "very" or "somewhat" favorable views of Depp, a number which had dropped to 56% after the trial. The drop was most pronounced among baby boomers, with a decrease from 59% to 37%, and least among Generation Z
Generation Z (or more commonly Gen Z for short), colloquially known as zoomers, is the Western world, Western demography, demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular me ...
respondents, decreasing from 72% to 70%. Depp's favorability decreased across all political affiliations, including a decrease from 70 percent to 55 percent among Democrats, a decrease from 68 per cent to 55 per cent among Independents, and a decrease from 65 percent to 57 percent among Republicans
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
.
Film adaptation
A film adaptation of the trial, ''Hot Take: The Depp/Heard Trial'', was premiered on September 30, 2022 on Tubi
Tubi is an American over-the-top content platform and ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox Corporation. The service was launched on April 1, 2014, and is based in Los Angeles, California. In January 2021, Tubi reached 33 million monthly ...
.
Post-trial motions
On July 1, 2022, Heard's legal team asked the court to set aside the verdict in favor of Depp in its entirety, dismiss the complaint or order a new trial. Their arguments included that (1) Heard "never edited or played any role with the respect to the headline" and "never even became aware of the headline until Mr. Depp filed the lawsuit against her"; (2) that "Depp’s award was excessive" and that, though Depp had "represented to the court he would limit his damages to the period Dec. 18, 2018 through Nov. 2, 2020," he "continued to urge the jury to restore his reputation and legacy to his children as a result of Ms. Heard accusing Mr. Depp in May 2016 of domestic violence"; (3) one juror was listed as born in 1945 in a court list, but public information "demonstrates that he appears to have been born in 1970".
On July 13, 2022, Azcarate denied several of Heard's post-trial motions for "reasons stated on the record" but provided further explanation regarding the disputed juror. She stated that the summons issued to the juror "listed his legal name and address and no birth date was noted", that the juror had provided his proper birth date when answering a court questionnaire and that Heard's legal team had neither alleged nor "shown evidence of prejudice" by the juror. She also noted that the parties had " questioned the jury panel for a full day and informed the court that the jury panel was acceptable"; and that "a party cannot wait until receiving an adverse verdict to object, for the first time, to an issue known since the beginning of trial." She concluded that " e only evidence before this court is that this juror and all jurors followed their oaths, the court’s instructions and orders. This court is bound by the competent decision of the jury."
Appeals and settlement
Heard appealed in October 2022 against the judgment against her, while Depp appealed in November 2022 against the judgment against him.
Heard settled the case against Depp in December 2022, stating that even if her appeal succeeded she "simply cannot go through" a retrial having "lost faith in the American legal system". She maintained that the settlement was "not an act of concession" and that she had not agreed to any "restrictions or gags" going forward. Depp's lawyers stated that the "jury's unanimous decision and the resulting judgement in Mr. Depp's favor against Ms. Heard remain fully in place", and that the settlement would result in $1 million being paid to Depp, which "Depp is pledging and will donate to charities".
References
External links
Op-ed written by Amber Heard for The Washington Post
* Fairfax County
Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...
website
High-Profile Cases
fo
Trial exhibits
and the list of documents made available by the Circuit Court.
* YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
playlists (with varying content) via: Law&Crime Networ
link
and Sky News
Sky News is a British free-to-air television news channel and organisation. Sky News is distributed via an English-language radio news service, and through online channels. It is owned by Sky Group, a division of Comcast. John Ryley is the hea ...
br>link
{{Johnny Depp
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May 2022 events in the United States
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