Depp-Heard defamation trial: What was the jury considering?

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — After a six-week trial, a civil jury in Virginia spent about 12 hours over three days deliberating defamation claims by Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard. The jury on Wednesday afternoon awarded Depp more than $10 million in damages, while finding that Heard’s counterclaim had merits too, awarding her $2 million in damages. The trial featured lurid testimony with explicit details about the movie stars’ short and volatile marriage. But the question the jury needed to answer is whether Heard defamed Depp in an op-ed in which she wrote that she was “a public figure representing domestic abuse.” The jury also needed to decide a counterclaim filed by Heard. She said she was defamed when Depp’s former lawyer called her abuse allegations a “hoax.”