Why is it that when people of color commit crimes their sentence is rendered the same day as judgement?


NEW YORK (Reuters) - Celebrity homemaker Martha Stewart (news - web sites), who was convicted in March on conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges, was granted about a week's delay in sentencing from the judge considering her request for a new trial, prosecutors said on Friday.


U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum had granted the delay to July 16 from July 8, at the defense team's request, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan U.S. attorneys office said. Stewart's lawyers have asked that her conviction be thrown out because a government witness at the trial has since been charged with committing perjury on the stand.


A spokeswoman for Stewart could not immediately be reached for comment. On Thursday, prosecutors filed papers opposing the trendsetter's motion for a new trial.


At issue is testimony by U.S. Secret Service laboratory director Larry Stewart, who is not related to Martha Stewart. He has been charged with lying while testifying as an expert witness about ink on a worksheet kept by Martha Stewart's stockbroker. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.


U.S. prosecutors said requests for a new trial "fail because they cannot meet their burden to show that Mr. Stewart's false testimony had any effect on the jury's verdict."


They also said there was "overwhelming" evidence that Martha Stewart and her former broker Peter Bacanovic were guilty and the evidence was "wholly independent" of the lab director's testimony.


Martha Stewart, 62, who built a media empire on tips for gracious living, was found guilty in March of lying to investigators over a suspicious stock sale and is expected to face time in prison.


Her conviction for conspiracy, making false statements and obstruction was related to her suspicious sale of stock in biotech company ImClone Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:IMCL - news) in December 2001.


Prosecutors said she was tipped that ImClone's founder, Sam Waksal, was dumping his shares. The defense said there was a preexisting deal to sell her shares if the price fell to $60.


The broker's worksheet listed various securities positions held by Martha Stewart and had Bacanovic's handwritten notations, including one to sell ImClone "at 60."


But Martha Stewart's lawyers, in papers filed last week, demanded a new trial, saying "the government's election to call Larry Stewart as a witness and to present his testimony at trial produced error of constitutional dimension."


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
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SummerRain said:

What are you talking about? Martha is a woman of color. Mauve and puce and periwinkle and grenadine, all SORTS of colors!

2the9s said:

FREE MARTHA!!!!!