Martha Stewart verdict: lying is no longer a sin?

  • Thread starter Thread starter stellina
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

stellina

Guest
Maybe I’m stretching the purpose of this forum, but I have to vent about the Martha Stewart verdict. Say what you will about the relative seriousness of her actions, but any person with half a brain has to see that the woman lied and got caught. What eats me is that she has the unmitigated arrogance to deny any responsibility and waltzes out of the courtroom with a slap on the wrist to a fawning crowd of media & supporters who hail her as a modern-day martyr, only to triumphantly declare that she will return. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised…

How far has our society gone when we not only sympathize with liars, cheats, & lawbreakers, but we cry for them and call them victims? How can somebody like Martha Stewart be a victim of anything except her own greed and conceit? My mother is one of the most devout people I know, and she suggested that I pray for her & people like her, but in all respect to my mother, I find it extremely difficult. I feel that prayers are better spent on all the poor people in prison because they never had a chance in life and resorted to crime out of ignorance or in desperation. If anybody is a victim of this upside-down society, they are.

Just my opinion, but I guess it shows that I have a long road ahead of me when it comes to Christian charity…
 
I agree with you and I also can’t believe some members of the press saying how the sentencing was to strict. If it had happened to you or I, we would’ve gotten the whole 10 years. I shook my head when she stated how this was a “personal matter”.
 
40.png
stellina:
Say what you will about the relative seriousness of her actions, but any person with half a brain has to see that the woman lied and got caught. What eats me is that she has the unmitigated arrogance to deny any responsibility…
Click to expand...
I agree 👍
 
Compare the sentence she got for lying during an investigation to what Clinton got for lying UNDER OATH.
 
Sir Knight:
Compare the sentence she got for lying during an investigation to what Clinton got for lying UNDER OATH.
Click to expand...
That’s just what’s bothering me about this. So many people are trivializing what she did just because there are people who did worse & got away with it. I’m not defending Clinton by any means, but just because he wasn’t punished and Martha is being punished does NOT in any way affect her guilt or innocence - or at least that’s what I remember being taught in law school. That’s also what I understand about natural or divine law, which also binds us Christians: right or wrong is not adjudged on a comparative basis.
 
I watched “The Larry King Show” last evening where he interviewed Martha…I was having a little sympathy for her I’ll have to admit… However, when asked who she attributed her success to and her “light sentence”, she mentioned everyone and everything but God… She just isn’t getting it! She need a lot of prayers.
Does anyone know if she is/was a Catholic? 🙂
 
I would like to see anyone who has done five months in prison describe it as a wrist-slap.

I mean, I have no liking for Martha Stewart at all. Suggesting that she should have gotten 10 years in the pokey for lying to federal investigators about insider stock trading is just, well, wrong. There has to be some sense of proportionality between the crime and the sentence, and that’s not proportional at all.

Yes, what she did was wrong. You should not lie to investigators. If you do, you should be penalized for it. In my jurisdiction, though, people who tell far more serious lies with far more serious consequences are charged with obstructing and generally get off with probation, if the charges are not plea-bargained away entirely.

I feel sad for her, although I’m not going to waste a lot of time on it. I feel sad for just about everyone who goes to prison even if, as Martha did, they have it coming.

Martha Stewart is going to prison for five months. I’m assuming they won’t exactly stick her in Marion, but she will still be locked behind walls with little ability to contact her loved ones or do her work. She will have no privacy, and she will experience the extremely unsettling experience of having every facet of her life controlled by others.

If you think that’s easy, I invite you to spend a week in the slam of your choice. You’ll emerge with a different perspective. I hope you never have to.

I feel sad for her, although I’m not going to waste a lot of time on it. I feel sad for just about everyone who goes to prison even if, as Martha did, they have it coming.
 
Auberon Quin:
. . .Yes, what she did was wrong. You should not lie to investigators. If you do, you should be penalized for it. In my jurisdiction, though, people who tell far more serious lies with far more serious consequences are charged with obstructing and generally get off with probation, if the charges are not plea-bargained away entirely… . .
Click to expand...
On the other hand lying under oath to a grand jury [Clinton] or in trial testimony [Fuhrman] has no penalty. :confused:
 
40.png
Faustina:
I shook my head when she stated how this was a “personal matter”.
Click to expand...
:clapping:

It IS a personal matter…it matters to her personally whether or not she was able to use insider trading information. How dare the U.S. government sanction her for trying to make money…after all isn’t that the way of capitalism?

😉
 
i was really concerned the christians might not gather to cast their stones… somethings are absolute… splinters and timbers! 👍
 
space ghost:
i was really concerned the christians might not gather to cast their stones… somethings are absolute… splinters and timbers! 👍
Click to expand...
I am not casting stones at Martha Stewart - I do find it sad that money, in this case, a paltry percentage of her portfolio, was the cause of so much ill will for Martha Stewart as well as putting many people out of work. I do not think that Martha Stewart ever thought that she would be made to “play by the rules” of the government, though.
 
Wasn’t Martha Stewart on the Board of Directors for the New York Stock Exchange? Silly me, I expect these guys to be exemplary in all their stock transactions.
 
40.png
Annunciata:
I watched “The Larry King Show” last evening where he interviewed Martha…I was having a little sympathy for her I’ll have to admit… However, when asked who she attributed her success to and her “light sentence”, she mentioned everyone and everything but God… She just isn’t getting it! She need a lot of prayers.
Does anyone know if she is/was a Catholic? 🙂
Click to expand...
There was a television report regarding Martha Stewart being Catholic.
 
I agree with Quinn. The punishment fit the crime. The more lasting consequence of her crime, however, is that she’s through. The media curcus of support has already died down. I predict that she will never be able to resurrect her business empire because she will be largely regarded as tainted.
 
Shoot, the rich and famous are above the law—secular or church.
 
40.png
aman:
… The punishment fit the crime …
Click to expand...
She’ll spend more time in jail than the average drunk that beats his wife. She’ll spend more time in jail than a lot of folks that actually caused physical harm to people. Most DUI drivers in the courts are getting 24 to 48 hours in jail with credit for the time they sat in jail waiting on bond. They get fined, a suspended license, “community” service, DUI school and impact panel, and probation. That’s about it. It’s absolutely rediculous.

I think that priorities are out of whack in the Justice system. She should be heavily fined and have to do some time in a halfway house and/or under house arrest, but spending five months in prison over something that didn’t actually physically hurt anyone, threaten anyone, or place anyone in actual danger just doesn’t seem right to me. The money and space it will take to jail her would be better spent putting somebody away that is actually a danger to somebody.

Lying in an investigation is a crime, and it deserves punishment. However, I don’t think that it deserves a stiffer sentence than a crime that actually hurts someone.
 
5 months in prison is not a slap on the wrist.
Furthermore, although she may have done something wrong - she is in the place she is at because of her celebrity status - SHe is being used as an example to all corrupt big business people who cheat and lie, even just a little bit.
 
Martha made a very amateurish mistake when she even talked to law enforcement. She should have declined to say a word and asked for a lawyer. That way she would not have lied. Now, she is being punished for lying. Some think the sentence too light; others too harsh. I think it is heavy because she could have avoided it all by simply refusing to talk to investigators.
 
40.png
OriginalJS:
I think it is heavy because she could have avoided it all by simply refusing to talk to investigators.
Click to expand...
She could have avoided it all by simply not lying. The investigators didn’t force her to lie.
 
As it has been said time and time again in Hollywood, “any publicity is good publicity”! Martha Stewart will actually end up making more money after spending her 5 months in jail than had she just not made that stock transaction. Nothing like a HUGE payday for breaking the law!
well me and my mom always listen to her show in Sirius radio Ask Martha Stewart Show that’s EST-9:00am… Well in spite of her issues right now she is still a trendsetter… it doesn’t mean that Martha is a bad person. Well in most cases people would say that she is a criminal… But when you going to think that Martha is still a good person and she’s a good talk show host too…

many thanks!

taChibaMaboi
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top