Martha Stewart's Appeal Begins

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

25 October 2004

Lawyers for lifestyle guru Martha Stewart, who is currently serving a five-month sentence at a minumum security prison that some commentators have dubbed "Camp Cupcake", have begun an appeal against her conviction for conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and making false statements in relation to her decision in 2001 to sell shares in ImClone Systems Inc. on the advice of her stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic, shortly before they plummeted in value.

In documents filed with the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals which were made public on Thursday, Stewart's legal team suggested that several factors, including the suggestion by government lawyers that Stewart had engaged in insider trading, had meant that she was unable to receive a fair trial.

"Tarring Stewart with an uncharged, highly inflammatory crime was fundamentally unfair; that unfairness was compounded by rulings that barred Stewart from responding to those charges and prevented the jury from understanding what was - and what was not - properly before it," they argued.

The attorneys for the homemaking guru also suggested that one of the jurors at the trial had lied in order to obtain his place on the jury and convict Stewart.

They additionally challenged the use of audio tapes of SEC interviews with Mr Bacanovic at her trial, suggesting that the fact that the stockbroker was not called upon to testify in person represented a violation of a Supreme Court decision delivered earlier this year which bars the use of statements by persons who do not later testify in court.

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