Featured Image Credit: Alamy/Netflix
Topics: Johnny Depp, Netflix
Anish Vij
Johnny Depp hired a lawyer after watching her on a Netflix series.
A quick recap just in case you've been living under a rock for the past few days - the Pirates of the Caribbean actor proved that the 2018 article written by his ex-wife, Amber Heard, was defamatory and, in return, was awarded $15 million (£12 million) by a jury, which later capped at $10.35 million (£8 million) by Judge Penny Azcarate.
In a separate verdict, Heard was awarded $2 million (£1.6 million) in damages in a counterclaim against her ex over defamatory comments made by his lawyer Adam Waldman, who referred to her abuse claims as a 'hoax'.
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Well, Kathleen Zellner - an American lawyer who was featured in the Netflix show Making a Murderer - has come out and said that Depp hired her because he saw her on the show and remembered her saying she was 'the last person someone would hire if they were guilty'.
For those unaware, the show 'tells the real story of the case of Steven Avery, who was charged and then convicted for the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach, alongside his nephew Brendan Dassey, just a few years after being released from prison for a wrongful sexual assault conviction', as per Radio Times.
Speaking to the Law & Crime Network following the verdict, Zellner said: “He called me and left a voicemail at my office.
“I didn’t really believe that it was Johnny Depp at all, but it sounded like him and he left the phone number and just said he wanted to talk to me.”
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She added: “It was indicative to me of the fact that he was innocent, because he said, ‘I saw on Making a Murderer, where you said that you’d be the last person someone would hire if they were guilty, because you would find out about it’.
“And I was very struck with that that that’s what motivated him to contact me.”
Speaking about the case specifically, she also said: "I think that the jury absolutely reached the right verdict.
"I think it's hugely vindicating and exonerating for Johnny; it's something he’s really had to deal with, particularly since the UK verdict.
“I think it’s a great victory.
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"It reassures me how well juries work and why we can trust jurors to come to the right decision.
"I think the case boiled down to a contest of credibility.”
She added: “I’m so happy for him. He’s been reborn.”
Zellner believes the reason why Heard lost the case was due to the ‘forensic evidence’.
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"It failed on the forensic evidence, those beating and abuse she described did not happen," she added.
"I’ve been doing criminal cases for over thirty years and the forensic evidence simply wasn’t there. She just did not suffer those injuries."