NEW YORK – Domestic icon Martha Stewart was handed a prison term of just five months Friday for lying about a stock sale. After asking the judge for leniency, she emerged defiant from the courthouse to say she was being persecuted and declared, Ill be back.
Im not afraid. Not afraid whatsoever. Im very sorry it had to come to this, she told a crowd of media and supporters afterward, speaking in a strong voice on the courthouse steps.
Stewart, who was also ordered to serve five months of home confinement and fined $30,000, did win a key victory when U.S. District Court Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum stayed her sentence pending appeal, a process that could last many months.
The sentence was also far less than it could have been. Experts had predicted she would receive 10 to 16 months for her conviction on charges she lied to federal prosecutors about the reason and circumstances surrounding her well-timed sale of stock in ImClone Systems Inc.
In the courtroom, Stewart, 62, projected a much less confident image, appealing in a shaky voice for a reduced sentence and asking the judge to remember all the good I have done.
Today is a shameful day. Its shameful for me, for my family and for my company, she said. As she was sentenced, she stood and faced the judge, her jaw tight but otherwise showing little emotion.
But outside the courthouse, Stewart was confident and upbeat. She smiled broadly to the cheers of supporters as she complained that a small personal matter had been blown out of proportion.
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