By Alabama Public Radio
Birmingham, AL – Opening statements in the Richard Scrushy fraud trial will begin Tuesday. Attorneys selected 12 jurors and six alternates today. The public was barred from the process, but members of the news media watched the selections on closed-circuit television. The former HealthSouth C-E-O faces a 58-count indictment, and Scrushy has pleaded innocent. His lawyers also have asked Federal Judge Karon Bowdre to exclude testimony about the losses HealthSouth investors suffered because of the fraud. They say Scrushy is not challenging the existence of fraud at the company.