Martha Gets the Minimum

Martha Stewart is a criminal who got the minimum for the four counts on which she was convicted. There are a great many on Wall Street who think she got a raw deal. Others believe that if she were a "regular person," she wouldn't have faced prosecution, or persecution. Once armed with the facts, though, one might suggest that she got off too lightly.

Her defenders will note, rightly, that the prosecution never convicted her of the crime of insider trading. That is true, but the criminal activity for which she will serve 5 months in prison is more serious. Obstruction of justice, lying to investigators, whatever one wishes to call it does far more damage to society that using a little insider information in a quarter of a million dollar stock sale.

There was a time, pre-Enron, when this sort of misbehavior would not have gone to court. The SEC would have had Ms. Stewart sign a consent decree in which she would not admit to any wrongdoing and agree never to do it again. When a kid steals a $5,000 car, that's grand theft auto, and the jail time gets measured in years. When stock swindles ten, a hundred or a thousand times that result in consent decrees, white collar criminals lose all fear of the "punishment," and there is no deterrence of the crime.

Ms. Stewart won't be in jail anytime soon, though. She will get an appeal, after all, she can afford one. And the American justice system will grind on for months (long enough for a Christmas pardon if one is in the works). Meanwhile, she can continue to do her thing.

If she wants that pardon, it might be a good idea to stow the martyr complex. On the steps of the courthouse she said, "I'm a really good camper. I can sleep on the ground. ... There are many, many good people who have gone to prison ... look at Nelson Mandela." Of course, Nelson Mandela will be the first to admit that he was guilty of terrorism, as defined by the apartheid regime. Ms. Stewart still thinks she's innocent. She also said, "I didn't cheat the little people. ... We're all little people. I didn't cheat anybody out of anything." Little is as little does.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


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