Can Execs On Trial in 2009 Get Impartial Jurors?

[WSJ_law_blog]

How would you like to be an executive facing trial right now, especially one about your compensation? Wall Street has melted away, everyone is blaming everyone, bonuses are the outrage of the day and there you are. You might as well wear a tie with a bullseye on it to the trial, right?

Well that’s exactly what James Treacy’s lawyers worry about for their client after seeing the results of a survey they commissioned of about 400 New York City residents. Treacy (pictured), the former president of Monster Worldwide, was indicted last year on securities-fraud charges in connection with stock-options backdating at the company. The trial is scheduled for April 20.

Treacy’s lawyers at Steptoe and Johnson made a recent motion asking that during jury selection, potential jurors should be quizzed about their ability to be impartial regarding senior-level executives.

“[T]he credit crisis has plunged the country into an economic downturn unseen since the Great Depression,” wrote Steptoe’s Evan Barr. Amid the negative publicity on corporate executives who were portrayed as “reckless and greedy,” Barr said he was concerned potential jurors may allow the events of the past several months to impact their attitudes” toward executives and making it more difficult to get a fair trial.

• 60.2% of the participants believe that the recent economic crisis has been caused mainly by senior-level corporate executives who have committed financial crimes.

• 47.3% of the participants believe that if the United States government accuses a senior-level corporate executive of committing financial fraud, he or she probably did it.

• 29% of the participants believe that a senior-level corporate executive is definitely or probably guilty when they hear that he or she has been accused by the United States government of committing financial fraud.

• 30.2% of the participants feel that even though they may tell a judge that they can be a fair and impartial juror in cases involving senior-level corporate executives who are accused of committing financial fraud, the current economic crisis will make it very difficult for them to presume that such defendants are innocent until proven guilty.

Photo credit: AP