Enron sentencing jury is back

This just in: the novel advisory sentencing jury asked to decided a variety of sentencing-enhancing guideline issues in the Enron Nigerian barge case (background here) has returned its verdict. You can get all the details in this Houston Chronicle article, which explains that the jury determined:

• The sham produced $13 million in loss (not as much as the $43 million argued by the government or as little as the $120,000 suggested by the defense)
• All three defendants broke a private trust with Merrill Lynch.
• Two defendants had managerial or leadership roles and used more than minimal planning in the deal.
• One defendant did not substantially interfere with justice and did not use special skills.

Juries at work.  How interesting.  I cannot help but conclude (especially while sitting in the ivory tower) that this case shows that, even in complicated fraud settings, “Blakely-izing” the federal guidelines is not really that hard.