Judge Seats Jury in Enron Trial

[NEWS] This evening I heard an NPR story reporting that a jury had been seated in the Enron trial -- that is, the trial of Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling. From the little bit that I heard, I began thinking of questions:

• What sort of voir dire was there? What sort of jurors would you want if you were the prosecutor? The defense team? How would you assess the pool? How long did they take to seat this jury?
• The judge told the jury this would be one of the most interesting cases they could see. Will it? There's the high drama of big money, but won't there be a lot of technical financial talk?
• Prof. Howard was talking about trial exhibits this afternoon ... What sort of exhibits will this jury likely be asked to follow? Will the jurors be given any aids, such as copies of the exhibits or juror notebooks? (See post about study of juror understanding of scientific evidence.)

When I got home, I went to the Houston Chronicle's website, which has more Enron coverage than most of us can absorb. Here are some highlights:

• Today's lead story: Judge seats jury in Enron trial | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle


• Discussion of what the lawyers would be looking for in voir dire and how it would be conducted: Agreeing on 12 Enron jurors no easy feat | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle


• The 66-page indictment.


• A list of likely key witnesses.


• A summary of what to expect, with Q&A about the background of the case, what the charges are, what the defense is, etc.


• The Houston Chronicle's own blog about the trial by six local attorneys. So far (the blog just started Friday), most of the discussion has been about the possibility of a fair trial -- specifically about voir dire (the district judge did not allow attorneys to question the jurors directly) and the defense's failed motion for a change of venue. (Speaking of change of venue due to pretrial publicity, see the law review article cited in Friday's post here.)

Houston being some distance from Washington, I don't plan to cover much about this trial -- if you're curious, follow it in the Houston Chronicle. Other blogs that might have some commentary (although not "all Enron, all the time" as in the Chronicle) are:

• Letter of Apology: A White Collar Blog
• White Collar Crime Prof Blog
• Sentencing Law and Policy (also a law professor blog)


• Talk Left: The Politics of Crime

Categories: juries, voir-dire, Enron, white-collar, news,