Joe Nacchio’s attorneys were rebuffed Thursday in their request to submit their own written questionnaire to potential jurors.

U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham also said he thought the government could prosecute its case in eight — rather than 12 to 15 days — based on an apparently short witness list.

The prosecution’s witness list was submitted to the judge and defense privately, and wasn’t immediately disclosed publicly. It will be up to the judge when the witness list will become public.

Neither the defense nor the prosecution commented after the short pretrial hearing, which was followed by a 90-minute closed session dealing with classified information.

Nacchio, former Qwest chief executive, faces 42 counts of insider trading in connection with selling $101 million of stock during the first five months of 2001. He has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is scheduled to start March 19.

The entire trial was expected to last up to 7 ½ weeks, but Nottingham's comments indicate it might be completed much quicker.

Nottingham plans to question potential jurors himself and already has sent out written questionnaires to screen out biased jurors. He said he didn’t believe an additional written questionnaire from the defense was necessary.

"It’s overkill in most cases," Nottingham said, adding that most of the defense's questions will be posed by him anyway in open court where attorneys will be able to observe the demeanor of a potential juror.

Jury selection is seen as a critical aspect of the case. Nacchio's attorneys earlier were unsuccessful in their bid to move the trial out-of-state because of the publicity over the case here.