The Formation Of Enron Jurors' Opinions Is Under Scrutiny

One juror called former Enron executive and likely government witness Sherron Watkins "brave" for writing an anonymous memo raising questions about the company's accounting practices. During jury selection, she told the judge she was surprised that Lay and Skilling faced trial together.

"I'm a little confused that you're trying them together," she said. "I mean, one could be innocent, and one could be guilty. I don't know that they're in this together. I don't get that feeling at all."

Another panel member called the defendants "suspect" in his questionnaire, the transcript said. About Lay, who maintains that for most of his tenure he handled high-level political and diplomatic relations rather than financial details, the juror wrote, "If he did not know what was going on in his company, he was really a poor manager or leader."

A finance worker who reported being laid off four or five times in recent years expressed similar thoughts. "I feel like, if a person is responsible for a company, they should know what's going on with them."

He also expressed anger over the job loss at Enron and blamed the company's demise for the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, corporate responsibility legislation that resulted in a heavier workload for the juror.

The engineer, who has taken copious notes so far in the trial, said of many corporate executives in pretrial questioning: "They're trying to meet the bottom line. . . . I think they're stretching the legal lines on it."

Defense lawyers challenged the fairness of that prospective juror outside his earshot, but the judge rebuffed them after the juror said he could be fair.

A female juror reported during the selection process that she had interacted with Lay's sister Sharon, who showed up in the spectator gallery after the trial began. Another young female juror attends Second Baptist Church, whose pastor appears on a list of character witnesses for Lay. Lay also is a member of her parents' country club, she said.

In her questionnaire, she wrote of the defendants, "I think they probably knew they were breaking the law."

Other panelists include an Indian man who came to the United States in 1990, a woman whose husband had been an official with the Houston Police Department, and another woman who told the judge that her law firm had to write off "a substantial amount" of unpaid fees when Enron went bust.

So far, to the delight of the efficiency-minded judge, jurors have arrived on time and sharply dressed, signaling they are taking their job professionally. For Valentine's Day last week, the women wore bright red shirts or jackets and the men donned red ties in a show of esprit de corps in what experienced lawyers say could be a negative early sign for the defense.

"One of the things that a defense lawyer does not like is cohesiveness among the jury," said David Berg, a Houston attorney and author of "The Trial Lawyer: What It Takes to Win."

"What you want is independent thought," he said.