Depp vs Heard TikTok Juror - are they genuine?

What do their words reveal?

Shortly after we got the verdicts in the Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard trial, a video appeared on TikTok claiming to be from one of the jurors, setting out some of the reasons that he reached his verdict.

You can watch the TikTok here (edit 6th June, the video has gone, luckily you can read the words below!)

Is it genuine? Is this really from a juror? Let’s look at the words to see what we can get.

So today was my last day of being a juror on the Amber Heard Johnny Depp trial, and I wish to remain anonymous, but I thought I’d give some insight on my thoughts about the trial.

In this opening sentence, I see ownership of the words, with “my” and “I” being used several times. This is normally a good indication that we’re hearing the truth.

His very first words, often the most important thing someone has to say, are “So today was my last day”. If you’ve been a jury member for six weeks, that would be very important to you. If you had just been watching the trial remotely, that wouldn’t be so important and you may start your words with something else.

One interesting phrase is ‘’I’d give some insight on my thoughts”. This indicates what is coming is personal – it’s insight on “my thoughts”, not insight on the trial, or insight into how the jury came to the decision. There’s no attempt to make this more universal or to mean something bigger.

There’s nothing in this first sentence that indicates deception, but we’ve got a lot more words to look at, so there’s no conclusion yet

Pop culture

I don't follow pop culture too much, so I haven't really been a fan of Johnny Depp or Amber Heard, so I feel I was able to be pretty unbiased about the whole thing.

Now I see deceptive indicators. He doesn’t follow pop culture “too much”, he hasn’t “really” been a fan of Johnny or Amber, and he was only able to be “pretty” unbiased.

The qualifiers he puts on every element of this sentence weaken the impression he is trying to give. More truthfully, he could have stated this as “I do follow pop culture at times, I had a good impression of Johnny Depp or Amber Heard before the trial, which may have meant I was slightly biased”

He says, “haven’t really been a fan” in the past tense, this could indicate he is now a fan. That would be a fan of Johnny Depp, as he makes his feelings about Amber clear later.

Look at the way he orders their names. In the first sentence, when he talks about who is on trial, he says “Amber Heard Johnny Depp”, indicating he feels Amber was more on trial than Johnny. When he talks about being a fan, he says, “Johnny Depp or Amber Heard” which indicates he is more likely to be a fan of Depp.

But from the very beginning when Amber Heard was testifying, eh .. everything just seemed so off with how she kept making eye contact with me. And it made me extremely uncomfortable to where I would no longer look over at her when she was giving her answers. I would just listen intently and everything she was saying came off like bullshit.

What interests me about this part is that it is told from the point of view of someone sitting in the jury. Again, he is taking ownership with his use of “me” and “I”. While it’s by no means impossible, it’s harder for someone being deceptive to tell stories from this perspective. They would be more likely to use “us” and “we” to describe it.

The one thing I have a problem with is “EVERYTHING she was saying came off like bullshit”. Real-life and trials are more nuanced than that. Heard gave a lot of evidence, and it’s an overly large sweeping statement to say that “everything” was unbelievable.

It could be that because she appeared dishonest so often, that he didn’t know what to believe from her, but he hasn’t said that.

TikTok

And I wasn't following anything on TikTok during the whole trial. I was scrolling through after the trial and eh.. blows my mind how every single person seemed to be commenting on how weird it was.

This is another section where I spot deception. He says he “wasn’t following anything on TikTok”. That’s quite limited, he doesn’t say he didn’t see anything on TikTok or that he stayed off TikTok during the trial. He also doesn’t mention if he avoided any other social media platform. He only says he wasn’t “following” anything.

He works hard to attempt to show us that he followed the rules not to view any content on the trial. He says he didn’t follow TikTok “during the whole trial” and “I was scrolling through after the trial”. This feels like he’s trying to convince us he didn’t look at TikTok during the trial. Is that because he did?

As I said, I find this deceptive. I believe he did look at TikTok during the trial. However, why is that deception needed? Is it because he was a juror and wants us to believe he obeyed the rules and also wasn’t swayed by social media?

So eh good news for Johnny Depp. That's that was my gut feeling after all the information in the trial, but Amber Heard what a.. what a crazy woman.

The last sentence is weird. “Good news for Johnny Depp” is how a fan of Depp’s would state it. While the verdict in a trial will be “good news” for someone, is that how a juror would see it? I’d be more comfortable if he expressed satisfaction they’d come to the right verdicts.

I do like the mention of “all the information” which suggests that the verdict was based on more than him not liking the way Heard looked at him when she was a witness.

The last line feels like a pro-Depp Heard slam. However, compared to a lot of what has been said about Heard, it’s quite measured.

Conclusion

My strongest conclusion is that this person is a Johnny Depp fan. Whether they were previously a Depp fan, or came to be a fan during the trial, is unclear.

Are they a genuine juror? The way they take ownership of the words around being a juror and the consistent way that they tell this story from a juror's perspective slightly suggests they are. Not enough for me to state with any degree of certainty from these words.

However, I’m drawn to their deception. The areas they are deceptive about are the reasons they may not be considered to be a model juror. The fact they do seem to have a liking for Depp and that it seems they did watch TikTok during the trial.

Why this deception? It’s possible that this is not someone from the jury, so they are a Johnny Depp fan, who consumed all the social media during the trial, and they are badly trying to hide this.

Or, they are a genuine juror and are attempting to show they followed the rules and had no preconceptions going into the trial.

They are quite measured in most of their criticism of Heard, which makes me think the first possibility is most likely.

I can’t say for certain, but if you forced me to pick one, I’d say, having analysed the words, it’s slightly more likely that this video is from a genuine Depp vs Heard juror than not.

Do you spot anything else? Do you have a firmer conclusion? The guy interacts with people in the comments on the video, do you see anything there? Get involved in the comments below.

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