By Alabama Public Radio
Birmingham, AL – Preliminary jury selection continued Wednesday in the fraud trial of former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy. About 100 prospective jurors were questioned by the judge and by attorneys during two days of hearings in court. Final jury selection is set for January 24. That's the day before opening statements begin in the trial that some say could last as long as four months. In the preliminaries, defense lawyers asked the jury pool whether CEOs should be held responsible for their employees' crimes. Several potential jurors said executives should know what's going on among employees beneath them. But they also said there could be exceptions, especially in companies the size of HealthSouth. Scrushy has pleaded not guilty to a 58-count indictment including charges of conspiracy and fraud in what prosecutors say was a long-running scheme to overstate HealthSouth profits.