Lay and Skilling found Guilty - you could see this one coming

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Basically when everyone around hates you and thinks you’re a liar, the chance that you’ll be found not guilty in a trial is slim. Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling were two unloved people who gambled that big money lawyers would get them off. Public sentiment was against the duo from the beginning.

Even people who liked them basically, weren’t convinced of their innocence in the end:

“I wanted very badly to believe what they were saying,” juror Wendy Vaughan said after the verdicts were announced. “There were places in the testimony I felt their character was questionable.”

Skilling and Lay didn’t perform well before the jury, and Lay, in particular may have hurt his case with his outbursts. Jurors also struggled with the idea that Skilling and Lay, despite reputation as highly competent men, had trouble forgetting lots of details during their long trial.

Sentencing is set for September 11th, and it’s believed that most men will get double digit prison terms. In many ways the trial has been symbolic of the “anti-corruption” image being built since the bubble melted down in 2000-2001. Whether it has any real value in stopping corruption has yet to be proven.

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