NEW YORK (Reuters) - Martha Stewart's sentencing will be delayed three weeks until July 8 to give the judge time to consider another request for a new trial, the trendsetter's lawyers said on Monday."Judge Cedarbaum has granted a request by Martha Stewart and Peter Bacanovic for a short sentencing delay to enable their motion for a new trial to be considered by the court before sentencing," the lawyers said.
"The motion for a new trial, expected to be made later this week, will contend that the jury was unfairly affected by the alleged perjury of government witness Larry Stewart."
Stewart's first motion for a retrial, based on statements made by a juror, was denied.
At Stewart's sentencing next month, U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum will decide whether the celebrity homemaker will go to prison for conspiring with her broker Peter Bacanovic to cover up the reasons behind a suspicious sale of stock in ImClone Systems Inc., a biotech company run by a friend.
Legal experts say she could be sentenced to about a year in prison. The sentencing was initially set for June 17.
While prosecutors did not give a reason for the delay, her lawyers said Cedarbaum agreed to put back the sentencing so she could consider a defense motion for a new trial.
The motion will be filed later this week, Stewart's attorneys, Robert Morvillo and John Tigue, said in a statement.
In requesting a new trial, the lawyers said they will argue their client was wrongfully convicted because a government witness lied on the stand.
The motion will be based on perjury charges filed late last month against Larry Stewart, a U.S. Secret Service laboratory director and no relation to Ms. Stewart, accusing him of falsely testifying that he carried out tests on a key document in the trial.
Stewart -- who turned a small catering company into the multimedia firm Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. -- and her former stock broker, Peter Bacanovic, were convicted on March 5 in a federal trial of conspiring to lie about a suspicious stock trade.
On March 15, Stewart resigned as a board member and officer of her namesake company. On May 10, the company said it could face further operating losses, additional litigation and the loss of key employees as a result of Stewart's criminal conviction.
