Enron execs' trial will be held in Houston

U.S. District Judge Sim Lake has refused to move the trial of former Enron execs Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, the AP reports.

The judge said he wasn’t persuaded by defense arguments that a fair jury can’t be found in Houston because the questionnaire answers reveal inherent prejudice against Lay and Skilling.

Lake said questionnaires with unbiased answers and his intention to question the pool during jury selection next Monday “provide adequate safeguards to defendants and will result in the selection of a fair and impartial jury in this case.”

He also denied defense requests that attorneys be allowed to question potential jurors individually and postpone the trial to send out a new round of questionnaires in light of a guilty plea by former chief accounting officer Richard Causey. Causey was supposed to have been tried alongside his former bosses.

Lake has been denying requests to move the trial for a year. Lay and Skilling's attorneys wanted it to be held in Atlanta, Denver or Phoenix because of what they called hostile media coverage of and pervasive negative opinions toward the Enron management — presumably, they thought folks in Atlanta, Denver and Phoenix might think Enron was swell. The most recent request came after a poll of prospective jurors found people think of Lay as "a snake" and Skilling as "the devil." Pervasive negative opinions? Where?

Jury selection will begin Monday, and Lake has said he would like the jury to be chosen in a day. That means opening statements in the trial could begin as early as Tuesday. We can't wait.