Comeback

I wouldn't go so far as to propose canonization (see below), but a Martha Stewart comeback would be a sock in the eye of a misguided, vindictive, and self-promoting justice system that had the gall to prosecute someone for lying about a crime that they were never convicted of comitting.

The most serious criminal charge against her is not perjury or insider trading but securities fraud, based on the fact that she denied to the press, personally and through her lawyers, that she had engaged in insider trading. This was done, the feds say, not for the purpose of clearing her name, but only to prop up the stock price of her own publicly traded company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. In other words, her crime is claiming to be innocent of a crime with which she was never charged.

Michael McMenamin. "St. Martha—Why Martha Stewart should go to heaven and the SEC should go to hell" Reason Online Oct. 2003

Welcome back Martha!

UPDATE: Orin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy proposes a criminological angle on Stewart's liberation.

UPDATE: More on Ms. S, from Henry Blodget at Slate.

So, Martha's back, and she's not sorry.

Her detractors are incensed that she's getting out of jail, free—that she gets to go back to being rich, powerful, and famous. They seethe that the jailbird has made no groveling apologies or pleas for forgiveness. Perhaps, once her appeal is finished, Stewart will provide them. Based on her comments so far, however—don't hold your breath.