Anyone but me get the sick feeling that the jury "fix" is in on the ENRON

[cantstandbush]

trial of Len Kay? Remember the other fat cat that had one woman hold out so that his fat butt didn't lose in court? The kind of money these people have can buy anything. When the deal goes down on Abramoff, I bet he sees very little if any jail time. The RW judges are waiting in line to dismiss all the RW crimes.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. I have a hard time believing that ** will really cut these guys loose.

I think you may be right about the fix being in.

[AnnInLa]

2. Bookmark this: Daily blog of lawyers and reporters

who are actually in the courtroom...on the Houston Chronicle website:

http://blogs.chron.com/enrontrialwatch/

thanks to www.talkleft.com for the link

[0007]

6. What is your take on the up coming trial?

I've read most of the comments and haven't drawn a conclusion. What do you read into these comments?

Posted by Mary Flood at 09:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Who's who

As Judge Lake queried potential jurors about who they might know among the witnesses, it became clear that local clergy are among the most famous with this crowd.

The names of sports team owner Drayton McLane and former Texas Secretary of State Jack Rains didn't prompt anyone to raise their hands.

But the names of Ed Young of Second Baptist and Steve Wende of Ken Lay's church were known by some in the panel. One man also knew heart surgeon Denton Cooley, as three members of his family went under his knife.

Most of these more well-known local names are on the list as possible character witnesses for Ken Lay, who has been active in philanthropy and in getting sports arenas in Houston.

The only person Judge Lake said he will call to the bench because she recognized a name was a woman who is a friend and neighbor of Lay's personal accountant.

Posted by Mary Flood at 09:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
-----------------------------------------
Picking the jurors

It was with Judge Lake's very first query to the panel of possible jurors that three people said they might not be able to follow the rules and be fair.

The judge called them to the bench to confer privately with the judge and lawyers. He will be doing that much of the day.
"We are not looking for people who want to right a wrong or provide remedies for those who suffered because of the collapse of Enron," the judge said.

The judge introduced the lawyers and began reading the names of the 280 or so possible witnesses to see if any of the 100 knew them.

He said he does not want jurors who wish to punish anyone or seek revenge for the company's fall, saying the trial is not about that. Bottom line, the judge said, is finding 16 jurors who may not relish the work, but who see it as their as civil responsibility to serve.

Posted by Mary Flood at 09:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

[Divernan]

9. The Economist says it depends a lot on the credibility of witnesses.

The Jan. 25th-Feb.3rd issue has an article titled "The Drama Goes to Trial."

You have to be a subscriber to get access to their website:

www.economist.com/print

The article points out that according to the prosecutors, Skilling was much more active in the alleged conspiracy than Lay. Skilling faces up to 35 charges; Lay only seven. In a speech last December, Lay outlined the defence that he and Skilling expected to adopt.

"The investigation is largely a case about normal business activities typically engaged in on a daily basis by . . . publicly held companies." Enron's accounting may have been creative or aggressive - but so, the argument goes was many companies' during the stockmarket boom: it was certainly not fraudulent.

Another line of defense is expected to rest on Mr. Fastow's self-enrichment from off-balance-sheet partnerships that dealt with Enron. Lay claims that Enron went bankrupt because Mr. Fastow was a crook, not because it was a house of cards. Fastow is the govt.'s star witness and accepted a 10 year sentence under a plea bargain arrangement. Likewise, Richard Causey, Enron's former chief accounting officer, pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud. He'll serve 5 to 7 years, instead of the 40 yrs. he faced if the the prosecution had tried him on all their charges against him.

Under an exception to the hearsay rule, conspirators(Fastow & Causey) can be used to testify about what they heard another conspirator(Skilling/Lay) say. So the credibility of the govt.'s witnesses will be crucial to this trial.

[0007]

11. If Cliff Baxter were alive to testify, this whole trial would have another

face.

The biggest outstanding mystery in the Enron story is Cliff Baxter's suicide which is highly questionable and quickly muzzled.

The perceptible maneuver is to fool John Q into the idea that justice has prevailed. And for Gods sake, don't implicate Ken Lay's close friends, such as the Bush family. Intimately or incriminatingly!!

[babylonsister]

3. Not really. The lawyers tried to change the venue twice, and the

judge wouldn't let them. The jury, composed of Houstonians, was picked yesterday.
They can run, but there aren't many places left to hide, especially in this town.
For weeks we had pics and stories on the tube here of how Enron screwed so many
local people; I know I haven't forgotten.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. I remember a time when the system understood that someone had

to go to jail, or the public would lose trust in the system.

White men can't jump, but they can stay out of jail.

[Gman]

5. Not in Houston

The jury pool is way too diverse.

[Ganja Ninja]

7. Kenny & Company will get off on appeal.

After that a retrial will be declared too expensive.

[Jeanette in FL]

8. I couldn't believe that they were able to seat a jury in one day

When I heard yesterday was the first day of jury selection, my first thought was that this was going to be a long process. By this morning, a jury has been selected and sworn in. Just seemed way too quick for me. There has been so many trials where it takes days and days to get a jury seated.

My first thought was the fix is in as well. I guess we shall see.

[cantstandbush]

10. Anybody making less then $100,000/yr outhgt to be sick about now. n/t