A Celebrity Trial Comes To Fairfax, VA: Johnny Depp-Amber Heard Jury Selection Gives A Glimpse Of What Is To Come

deadline.com:

Most of the potential jurors in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial professed to know little about the case. Some were a bit puzzled when they walked into the Fairfax, VA, courthouse to see signs of “Justice for Johnny.” One potential juror admitted that he couldn’t quite place the plaintiff’s ex-wife. “To be honest, I forgot the name of the other party,” he said.That was apparent by the relative speed with which it took to pick the jury of 11 men and women, as they were seated by mid-afternoon.

Opening arguments now begin Tuesday.During the roughly four hours of questioning, attorneys on each side gave a glimpse of what will come up during the trial, as they pressed potential jurors on whether they held strong opinions or biases over a number of topics including MeToo, domestic abuse and sexual assault, alcohol and drug use, victim shaming, celebrity social media postings, police believability, the use of foul language and angry destruction of property.

All of it has been part of the tabloid coverage of the case — and for good measure jurors were asked if they knew what the Daily Mail was.The judge in the case, Penney Azcarate, told jurors that the trial would be about six weeks, suggesting a complex case that may come down to the believability of certain witnesses over others.

The jury is not sequestered, but they were advised not to read or research the case, even to turn off their cell phone notifications to prevent them from accidentally seeing a news alert.Fairfax, VA is 19 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., a suburban enclave well within its sphere of influence but enough removed to make the flood of cameras of a celebrity trial a bit unusual for the city.