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Being a juror in a court trial be difficult, especially hearing testimonies from witness after witness taking the stand and experts describing different psychologies that you may not fully understand. The constant stream of information could overwhelm anyone and even lull them to sleep. According to the court reporter in the highly-publicized defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, that's exactly what happened with some members of the jury during the six-week trial, per People.
Judy Bellinger served as court reporter throughout the trial, so she was witness to what went down inside the courtroom and had a view of the seven-person jury that those watching from home didn't see. In an interview with Law & Crime Network, Bellinger claims that a few members of the jury had a hard time keeping their eyes open.
"There were a few jurors who were dozing off," she said. "And it was tough. There were a lot of video deposition, and they would just sit there and all of a sudden I'd see their head drop."
One juror who proved to be the best listener and who was "paying close attention," she said, didn't end up having a say in the verdict as she was one of the alternates.
"Unfortunately, the one alternate that was on there, she was probably the one that listened the most," she said. "I watched her facial expressions, she was very deeply into every word that was being said. I thought she would've made a great juror, and she did not get to see it to the end."
On Wednesday (May 31), the jury ruled in mostly in favor of Depp, agreeing that Heard defamed him in her 2018 op-ed where she claimed to be a victim of domestic abuse, though she never mentioned him by name. The Pirates of the Caribbean star was awarded $15 million in damages, which was later capped at $10.35 million due to a Virginia law, while the Aquaman actress was awarded $2 million in damages. According to Heard's attorney, she plans to appeal the verdict.