Washington: A juror from the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial spoke exclusively to Good Morning America about the trial verdict, which ruled the verdict in favour of Depp after the controversy erupted when Heard wrote a 2018 Washington Post op-ed alluding to her past claims of domestic violence.
As Heard has been ordered to pay USD 10.35 million in damages to Depp as a result of the trial, one juror out of the seven-person jury told GMA that Heard’s emotional testimony during the trial was not realistic.
As per Variety, the juror said, “The crying, the facial expressions that she had, the staring at the jury. All of us were very uncomfortable. She would answer one question and she would be crying, and two seconds later she would turn ice cold. Some of us used the expression ‘crocodile tears’.”
“A lot of the jury felt what (Depp) was saying, at the end of the day, was more believable. He just seemed a little more real in terms of how he was responding to questions. His emotional state was very stable throughout,” the juror added. Heard’s team has repeatedly stated that social media and all the elements opposing Heard on platforms like TikTok have turned the jury in Depp’s favour.
“I think even the most well-intentioned juror … it would have been impossible to avoid this,” Heard told NBC News this week. On the other hand, the juror denied such accusations about social media, saying, “We followed the evidence. Myself and other jurors don`t use Twitter or Facebook. Others who had it, made a point not to talk about it.”
“What I think is truthful is that they were both abusive to each other,” the juror concluded. “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,” added the juror.The jury noted that one ‘fiasco’ that hurt Heard during the trial was the reveal that she had not yet donated her USD 7 million divorce settlement to charity, despite claiming to do so, as per Variety.
“She goes on a talk show in the UK and the video shows her sitting there, telling the host she gave all that money away. The terms she used in that video clip were, ‘I gave it away, I donated it, it’s gone.’ But the fact is, she didn`t give much of it away at all,” the juror concluded.