detail or to any extreme at all."); id., at 856a (Juror 11) (did not "get into the details of [the Enron case]" and "just kind of tune[d] [it] out"); id., at 873a (Juror 20) ("I was out of [the] state when [Enron collapsed], and then personal circumstances kept me from paying much attention."); id., at 892a (Juror 38) (recalled "nothing in particular" about media coverage); id., at 913a (Juror 50) ("I would hear it on the news and just let it filter in and out."); id., at 935a (Juror 63) ("I don't really pay attention."); id., at 940a-941a (Juror 64) (had "[n]ot really" been keeping up with and did not recall any news about Enron); id., at 971a (Juror 84) (had not read "anything at all about Enron" because he did not "want to read that stuff" (internal quotation marks omitted)); id., at 983a (Juror 90) ("seldom" read the Houston Chronicle and did not watch news programs); id., at 995a-996a (Juror 99) (did not read newspapers or watch the news; "I don't know the details on what [this case] is or what made it what it is"); id., at 1010a (Juror 113) ("never really paid that much attention [to] it"); id., at 1013a (Juror 116) (had "rea[d] a number of different articles," but "since it hasn't affected me personally," could not "specifically recall" any of them). 27 Id., at 944a (Juror 67) (had not read the Houston Chronicle in the
three months preceding the trial and volunteered: "I don't form an opinion based on what . . . I hear on the news"); id., at 974a-975a (Juror 87) (had not "formed any opinions" about Skilling's guilt from news stories). 28 As the D. C. Circuit observed, reviewing the impact on jurors of
media coverage of the Watergate scandal, "[t]his may come as a sur­ prise to lawyers and judges, but it is simply a fact of life that matters which interest them may be less fascinating to the public generally." United States v. Haldeman, 559 F. 2d 31, 62-63, n. 37 (1976). See also In re Charlotte Observer, 882 F. 2d 850, 855-856 (CA4 1989) 26 SKILLING v. UNITED STATES
Opinion of the Court
pressed sympathy for victims of Enron's bankruptcy and speculated that greed contributed to the corporation's collapse, these sentiments did not translate into animus toward Skilling. When asked whether they "ha[d] an opinion about . . . Jeffrey Skilling," none of the seated jurors and alternates checked the "yes" box.29 And in response to the question whether "any opinion [they] may have formed regarding Enron or [Skilling] [would] pre­ vent" their impartial consideration of the evidence at trial, every juror - despite options to mark "yes" or "unsure" - instead checked "no." The District Court, Skilling asserts, should not have "accept[ed] at face value jurors' promises of fairness." Brief for Petitioner 37. In Irvin v. Dowd, 366 U. S., at 727-728, Skilling points out, we found actual prejudice despite jurors' assurances that they could be impartial. Brief for Petitioner 26.