Martha Set To Take The Heat

The jury chosen to decide Martha Stewart's legal fate includes eight women and four men from diverse backgrounds, including a reverend, a translator and a pharmacist familiar with Stewart's recipes.

Many of them told U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum they had read or heard about the case already. But they described only vague knowledge of the case, and assured the judge they could be impartial.

Opening statements were scheduled to begin Tuesday morning.

"Prosecutors have to explain why a multi-millionaire like Stewart would have done something designed to save her a relative pittance," said CBSNews.com Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen. "The defense has to focus on a lack of direct proof that the sale of the stock was part of a criminal scheme.""

Cedarbaum told jurors Monday it was critical that the panel decide the case only on the evidence — and ignore the onslaught of media coverage surrounding the doyenne of domesticity's every move.

"If you see a headline about the case, turn the page. Look at another story," the judge said after jurors took an oath of service Monday. "If you hear something about the case, change the channel."

The judge has already complained about heavy pretrial publicity that, in her estimation, has gone beyond the public's right to know. She banned reporters from watching jury selection.

Stewart is accused of working with her stockbroker to concoct a story about why she sold 3,928 shares of ImClone Systems on Dec. 27, 2001 — just before it plunged on a negative government review of an ImClone cancer drug.

The government claims Stewart was tipped that ImClone founder Sam Waksal was trying to dump his own shares. Stewart and the broker, Peter Bacanovic, say they had a pre-existing agreement to sell the stock when it fell to $60 per share.

Some of the jurors admit to connections with Stewart, reports CBS News Early Show National Correspondent Jon Frankel.

One of the jurors is a pharmacist originally from Uganda who said she had seen Stewart frequently "in the TV sometimes — her cooking recipes and stuff." But she said she had not paid close attention.

One juror is a paralegal who translates Italian and owns stock in Merrill Lynch & Co. — the brokerage where Bacanovic managed Stewart's account, including the ImClone shares.

Another is a reverend who told the judge she counsels married couples.

In court Monday, Stewart watched quietly, sometimes showing a hint of a frown, as the jurors took their seats. She rested her chin on her right hand and took occasional notes on a stenographer's pad.

In a setback for Stewart's attorneys, the judge has ruled the defense cannot ask the jury to speculate as to why Stewart wasn't charged with insider trading, nor can the defense argue that Stewart is being prosecuted for maintaining her innocence, reports CBS News Correspondent Cami McCormick.

"The defense wanted the judge to say something explicitly to jurors, which Stewart's lawyers will certainly imply during the course of the trial, that the Feds didn't have enough evidence to bring a real insider trading against her," said Cohen.

The securities-fraud count accuses Stewart of deliberately trying to prop up the stock of her own company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, by saying in 2002 that she had done nothing wrong and was cooperating with investigators.

The government was expected to call a Merrill Lynch compliance officer as one of its first witnesses, to talk about the company's manual for brokers — a manual prohibiting brokers from discussing one client's affairs with another. Prosecutors say Bacanovic sent word to Stewart through an assistant that Waksal was trying to unload his ImClone shares, an apparent violation of that policy.