The verdict may have come in, but the battle between actors Amber Heard and Johnny Depp seems far from over.
After a jury ruled mostly in favor of Depp in the defamation case between the formerly married actors, Heard's legal team has vowed to appeal the decision.
But now a new curve ball has been thrown into this media circus of a case--the jury that ruled in Depp's favor apparently contained a juror who was never summoned for jury duty.
Now, Heard's lawyers are demanding a mistrial following the revelation of the shocking and suspicious error.
The jurors in question were left unnamed in Heard's legal complaint. But her team cited their discovery that the juror was never summoned for jury duty. Rather, someone in the same household, who is 25 years older, was the one to receive the summons.
How such a thing could have slipped through the cracks is a mystery. But Heard's attorneys are unsurprisingly calling for the trial and its verdict to both be thrown out because of the error. In its filing, Heard's legal team wrote:
"As the Court no doubt agrees, it is deeply troubling for an individual not summoned for jury duty nonetheless to appear for jury duty and serve on a jury, especially in a case such as this."
"This was a high-profile case, where the fact and date of the jury trial were highly publicized prior to and after the issuance of the juror summonses."
The trial stemmed from an op-ed Heard wrote for The Washington Post in which she discussed having been a victim of domestic and sexual abuse.
Though Depp was never named in the op-ed, the two were married during the time period discussed in the op-ed, and he sued Heard for defamation, alleging that she had abused him. Heard in turn countersued.
The trial, which devolved into utter chaos practically from the beginning, resulted in a $10.35 million judgment against Heard and a $2 million judgment against Depp.
A wrong juror having been seated would have precluded Heard's legal team from doing proper background research on the juror in question, an integral part of jury selection for any trial. Her legal team has claimed that this infringed on Heard's right to due process.
Depp's legal team has responded to Heard's claims, calling them "pure speculation" and claiming she has provided no evidence.
On Twitter, the news reignited the furor that consumed social media for weeks during the original trial.
Legal experts have questioned whether Heard's team's gambit will work, saying it will likely come down to whether they can prove true prejudice on the part of the wrongfully seated juror.
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