Martha, Martha, Martha

Jury members say they felt sorry for Martha, but not sorry enough to acquit her:

"I choked up and I felt my eyes tearing and I was very relieved that the judge read the verdict, because I wasn't sure if I would have to do that," jury forewoman Rosemary McMahon said Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

....Despite their sympathy for Stewart, the jury's decision to convict her of lying about a stock sale was made "after careful consideration of everything that we had," McMahon said. "We did what we had to do."

....Other jurors said Stewart's assistant Ann Armstrong, who reluctantly testified that Stewart tried to alter a phone record of a message from her stockbroker, was the key witness leading them to the domestic diva's conviction.

Armstrong testified that Stewart sat down at Armstrong's desk to change a message from her broker, Peter Bacanovic, that informed her that he thought the ImClone stock price would start falling.

"She ultimately gave the testimony that was going to bring Martha down. That was a very important piece," said juror Chappell Hartridge, one of six jurors who spoke to "Dateline NBC" in interviews that aired Sunday night.

"We all believed her 100 percent," juror Adam Sachs said of Armstrong. [AP]

Martha has to meet with her probation officer today:

Peter Bacanovic, the stockbroker convicted along with Martha Stewart for lying about a stock sale, arrived at a Manhattan courthouse Monday to meet with a probation officer.

Stewart was expected to show up at the same court later in the day for her own probation meeting. The meeting is the first step toward sentencing, which is set for June 17 for both.

....At the probation meeting, newly convicted defendants give profile information to an officer and answer some basic questions. Probation officials later write a report for the judge handling the sentence.

Bacanovic and Stewart are each expected to get 10 to 16 months in prison after they were each convicted on four counts Friday at their closely watched criminal trial. [AP]

The possibility of ANY jail time was enough for Martha to turn down a plea offer last April. Her last hope to stay out of a very well-appointed slammer is an appeal:

Within hours of being convicted Friday of conspiracy, making false statements and obstructing the Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of the ImClone trade, Stewart and her former Merrill Lynch & Co. broker, Peter E. Bacanovic, said they would appeal.
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