HOUSTON — For jurors who convicted Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling, weeks of complex testimony boiled down to one simple truth: The former Enron executives not only knew about the company's failing financial health, but supported the use of accounting chicanery to hide it.
In a group interview at the federal courthouse here, jurors said the parade of prosecution witnesses presented irrefutable evidence against the two men.
"There was some selectiveness on the part of both defendants about who they listened to," jury forewoman Deborah Smith said. "There were too many instances where the documents were there, the facts were there, and if they were in the same country, how could they not see it?"
Jurors said their task was not an easy one. When jury deliberations began last week, the mountain of evidence was "like a puzzle with 25,000 pieces dumped on the table," said Wendy Vaughan, the owner of two small businesses. "When we first started you just have to put together one piece at a time. As you get closer to the end, the pieces started to come together."
Juror Doug Baggett said that after a long day in court, he'd go home "swayed in one direction." During cross-examination the following day, he'd find himself "going in the other direction. I think we all felt like that, like a ping-pong ball."
But their task, jurors said, was made simpler by lawyers on both sides who turned what could have been an overwhelmingly complex case into one that could be understood.
"A person like me that knew very little felt as though I could make a very educated decision," said Kathy Harrison, an elementary school teacher.
When deliberations hit a snag, jurors said they turned to 20 boxes of evidence. "When in doubt, we always went to those boxes. In black and white, it says a lot," said Freddy Delgado, an elementary school principal.
"We put in long hours with minimal breaks....I don't think anyone can say they did not get a fair trial in Houston," he said.
None of the 12 jurors was absent or even tardy for a single day in court, a record that U.S. District Judge Sim Lake called remarkable.
The good attendance was a tipoff that the jury was working well together, said Mark C. Zauderer, a litigator and jury expert with Flemming Zulack Williamson Zauderer in New York.
"When jurors aren't getting along, you see a lot of headaches and absences," he said.
