Word: martha
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Martha Stewart jokes didn't seem as funny on Friday. You know, the ones about how black-and-white stripes are in this year and how a little lemon and seltzer can remove those pesky ink stains after you've been fingerprinted. As much as we revel in the failings of the famous, many folks figured she would never face prison. Such jests have the ring of tragedy now that she has been found guilty of obstructing justice and other crimes that all but guarantee she will end up behind bars...
Stewart was caught in a simple lie, the evidence so compelling and her attorney's 20-minute defense testimony so curt--Martha's too smart to do this--that after five weeks of testimony, a jury of eight women and four men needed less than three days to deliberate. And much of that time was spent weighing the case against her co-defendant and former Merrill Lynch stockbroker, Peter Bacanovic. He was found guilty as well on four of five counts and almost certainly will see prison time...
...Attorney David Kelley insisted that the government was not singling out Martha Stewart for prosecution to make an example of her in an era of spectacular corporate corruption. Take him at his word. But Stewart was no ordinary Jane who traded on inside information to make a quick buck. Her tabloid celebrity, her status as a walking, talking brand name, and her role as CEO of a publicly held corporation turned what would otherwise have been a simple case into a treacherous web of legal and corporate issues. And at almost every turn, she and her advisers made the wrong...
...resent her celebrity cheering section--sorry, Rosie--and the fact that her attorney, Robert Morvillo, never let her testify. That might have been proper legal strategy, but the jury had spent all that time in court with her and had never been properly introduced. That's not very Martha...
...culture that still feels slightly uncomfortable with the idea of an assertive, powerful woman, Martha Stewart was a perfect scapegoat. This is not to imply that what Stewart did was excusable—it certainly is not. But the public reaction to her case suggests that this scandal was much more a product of who she was than what she did. Her boldness was a bit too threatening and it is certainly part of the reason that the public was all too eager to see this ambitious female icon crumble...