Martha Stewart Could Face Bare Walls and 'Scrubs'

Martha Stewart, the 62-year-old former fashion model whose opinions on decor transformed the modern American home, will probably spend close to a year in a nondescript Connecticut detention barracks wearing "scrubs," isolated from the business that made her a millionaire, lawyers and prison experts said.

All eyes will be on the domestic diva when she arrives for sentencing at 10 a.m. EDT Friday in New York's Southern District federal courthouse. While several scenarios are possible, lawyers generally agree that Stewart most likely will be ordered into a low-security facility near her home where she will be allowed to read, watch television and work in the prison kitchen.

Stewart was convicted March 5 of lying to the government about her well-timed sale of about 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems(IMCL - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) in December 2001. The founder of Martha Stewart Omnimedia (MSO - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr) was convicted on all four counts in the obstruction of justice case. Stewart's co-defendant and former Merrill Lynch broker, Peter Bacanovic, was tried alongside his former star client, and will be sentenced a few hours after Stewart.

Federal sentencing guidelines mandate that Stewart serve 10 to 16 months in prison. But legal experts say Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum has latitude to make Stewart's immediate future more or less onerous, depending on her personal view of the woman.

"The judge looked directly at Stewart for five weeks straight," said white-collar defense attorney Scott Thompson. "The resulting sentence will tell you exactly what she thought of Martha Stewart as a person."

Guidelines Gone Wild

Ever since Stewart's lawyers lost the case in March, they have been intent on trying to get their client a new trial, but both motions failed with Judge Cedarbaum and they won't affect her sentencing tomorrow.

But hope springs eternal, and lead attorney Robert Morvillo and company will try to exploit the current confusion over federal sentencing guidelines following the Supreme Court's recent decision in the Blakely vs. Washington case.