HOUSTON -- A jury has been selected in Houston in the trial of Enron's founder and a former CEO.

Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling face dozens of counts of fraud, conspiracy and other charges tied to the energy company's spectacular crash in 2001.

The jurors were picked after just one day of jury selection in Houston federal court. There are eight women and four men on the panel, plus two male and two female alternates. Little is known about them because their juror questionnaires were not released.

The judge told prospective jurors Monday that "this will be one of the most interesting and important cases ever tried." He said it could last up to four months.

But, he said jurors shouldn't include "people who want to right a wrong or provide remedies for those who suffered in the collapse of Enron."

Opening statements are expected Tuesday.

'We're Ready'

Lay and Skilling arrived smiling at Houston's federal courthouse Monday morning for the premier criminal trial to emerge from the biggest corporate scandal in recent years.

"We're ready," Skilling's lead attorney said.

Lay replied to a reporter's question about how he felt by saying he's "fine."

Once in court, both were asked by U.S. District Judge Sim Lake to stand so more than 100 prospective jurors could see them.

The judge asked the pool if anyone had a problem presuming the defendants' innocence unless proven guilty by prosecutors beyond a reasonable doubt. Three said they did. An additional man said he said he did not feel he could judge anyone due to his religious beliefs.

Skilling's top attorney said the jury will be key to his client's fate.

"If we get 12 people who haven't made up their minds, we like our chances," the lawyer said.

Kenneth Lay's lawyer seemed less optimistic, calling Houston "a bad venue" to pick a jury.

The judge rejected defense requests to move the trial.

'What We've Been Waiting For'

Enron was once the nation's seventh-largest company.

Before 2001, it was considered an innovative new-economy maverick and admired as a top stock performer. But a spectacular collapse left thousands jobless and slammed Wall Street with billions in losses.

A former Enron pipeline worker who lost his job in the 2001 collapse said the trial "is what we've been waiting for."

Among the former employees who lost their retirement savings is Charles Prestwood. His nest egg contained $1.3 million, the sum total of working for Enron and its predecessor for 33 years. After the implosion, Prestwood's retirement savings fell to $3,600.

Prestwood said he is convinced that both Lay and Skilling knew everything that was going wrong.

"A lot of people said, 'Well, maybe they didn't know anything about it.' I said, 'You'll never convince me of that because the boss hog knows all of its piglets,'" Prestwood told KPRC-TV in Houston.

Skilling faces 31 counts of fraud, conspiracy, insider trading and lying to auditors for allegedly lying about Enron's financial strength.

Lay faces seven counts of fraud and conspiracy for perpetuating the alleged scheme after Skilling resigned in August 2001.

Both men have pleaded not guilty.

If convicted, each could face decades in prison and millions of dollars in penalties.

Crash Prompted Reform

Enron's crash and the subsequent scandals roiled Wall Street, sent investors fleeing, prompted stiffened white collar penalties and raised regulatory scrutiny over publicly traded companies that spawned a slew of high-profile cases.

Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor, thinks the trial of Lay and Skilling will be the most complicated of the recent corporate fraud trials.

"They don't want this case to be a mind-numbing primer on accounting technicalities. It has to be about what these defendants were told about the finances of Enron, and whether at the same time, they turned around and told the public," Mintz said.