Johnny Depp wins defamation trial against Amber Heard

The long withstanding saga between actors and former husband and wife, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard saw a conclusion earlier today as a verdict was ruled by the jury.

Depp has won the defamation trial against Heard, the jury in Virginia decided on Wednesday. 

After less than three days of deliberation, the seven-person panel ruled that Heard defamed Depp in a late 2018 Washington Post op-ed. In the piece, Heard described herself as the “public face of domestic abuse.”

Depp was seeking $50 million in damages, but the jury has awarded him $15 million — $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. But Judge Penney Azcarate quickly reduced the punitive damages figure to $350,000, the maximum allowed in the state.

It should be marked that the jury did rule for Heard in one of her claims, that she was defamed when Depp’s attorney Adam Waldman said in an interview that she and her friends “set” the actor up with “an ambush, a hoax” on the night of an argument between the couple in May 2016. The jury awarded Heard $2 million in compensatory damages and no punitive damages.

Having been in the UK touring with pal Jeff Beck up until Tuesday night, Depp was not in the courtroom Wednesday when the verdict was read out. He said in a statement, “The jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled.”

Heard stared down as the verdict was read, looking up as the jurors were polled. She quickly left the courtroom after the jury departed, with her attorneys close behind. Shortly afterward, she released a statement.

“I’m heartbroken that the mountain of evidence still was not enough to stand up to the disproportionate power, influence, and sway of my ex-husband,” she said.