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Martha Stewart's Defense Closes Case Within One Hour

Aired February 26, 2004 - 10:24   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Jurors in the stock fraud trial of Martha Stewart will have a long weekend before hearing closing arguments and deliberating the case next week. Stewart did not testify. And in fact, her lawyers took less than an hour to present their case.
CNN Financial News reporter Allan Chernoff has been covering the case, and joins us now with more.

Allan, good morning to you.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. And Robert Morvillo, Martha Stewart's attorney, told us the reason he had such a short defense is that he really doesn't believe the government proved much of anything. And lots of people are saying it was a big gamble to only bring one witness for the defense. But if you consider the wider perspective, it's not quite as bare bones a defense as it might appear, because Mr. Morvillo's team did have an opportunity to cross-examination virtually all of the government's 21 witnesses. Peter Bacanovic, Martha Stewart's co-defendant, also had five witnesses. They, to a certain extent, also testified on behalf of Martha Stewart's case.

Now, in terms of the schedule today, the jury is out. In fact, the jury is out all the way until Monday at 5:00 today Eastern time. The lawyers will be receiving a draft copy of the judge's instructions to the jury. Tomorrow morning, there will be a conference between the attorneys to talk about those instructions, to sort of argue about exactly what should be included, what shouldn't be included. And the judge still has not ruled on motions to try to toss out some of the counts. So there's lots of anticipation about that. We may get a hint about that from the draft copy of the instructions if we can get hold of it.

And in terms of the closing statements, scheduled for Monday likely to go into Tuesday. And the jury should finally get the case on Wednesday --Heidi.

COLLINS: All, I want to ask you, how important do you think these defenses -- closing arguments are? Sometimes a whole case can really depend on that?

CHERNOFF: Well, since Morvillo did put on such a very short case, it's clearly very important that he has a good closing argument. And Robert Morvillo is, without question, a superb orator. He put on a very strong opening statement. His close should be a very interesting one, and it will be quite long as well -- Heidi. COLLINS: All righty. We know you'll be there for it. Thanks so much, Allan Chernoff, appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired February 26, 2004 - 10:24   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Jurors in the stock fraud trial of Martha Stewart will have a long weekend before hearing closing arguments and deliberating the case next week. Stewart did not testify. And in fact, her lawyers took less than an hour to present their case.
CNN Financial News reporter Allan Chernoff has been covering the case, and joins us now with more.

Allan, good morning to you.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNNfn CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. And Robert Morvillo, Martha Stewart's attorney, told us the reason he had such a short defense is that he really doesn't believe the government proved much of anything. And lots of people are saying it was a big gamble to only bring one witness for the defense. But if you consider the wider perspective, it's not quite as bare bones a defense as it might appear, because Mr. Morvillo's team did have an opportunity to cross-examination virtually all of the government's 21 witnesses. Peter Bacanovic, Martha Stewart's co-defendant, also had five witnesses. They, to a certain extent, also testified on behalf of Martha Stewart's case.

Now, in terms of the schedule today, the jury is out. In fact, the jury is out all the way until Monday at 5:00 today Eastern time. The lawyers will be receiving a draft copy of the judge's instructions to the jury. Tomorrow morning, there will be a conference between the attorneys to talk about those instructions, to sort of argue about exactly what should be included, what shouldn't be included. And the judge still has not ruled on motions to try to toss out some of the counts. So there's lots of anticipation about that. We may get a hint about that from the draft copy of the instructions if we can get hold of it.

And in terms of the closing statements, scheduled for Monday likely to go into Tuesday. And the jury should finally get the case on Wednesday --Heidi.

COLLINS: All, I want to ask you, how important do you think these defenses -- closing arguments are? Sometimes a whole case can really depend on that?

CHERNOFF: Well, since Morvillo did put on such a very short case, it's clearly very important that he has a good closing argument. And Robert Morvillo is, without question, a superb orator. He put on a very strong opening statement. His close should be a very interesting one, and it will be quite long as well -- Heidi. COLLINS: All righty. We know you'll be there for it. Thanks so much, Allan Chernoff, appreciate it.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com