Peter Bacanovic, the high-powered stockbroker who was convicted along with Stewart of lying about her stock sale in December 2001, received the same sentence of five months in prison and five months home confinement.

While she did not admit guilt in court — a move that could have jeopardized her appeal — Stewart took pains to tell U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum she was sorry that others had been hurt by the scandal.

"What was a small personal matter became over the last two and a half years an almost fatal circus event of unprecedented proportions spreading like oil over a vast landscape, even around the world," Stewart said.

Cedarbaum accepted a defense request to recommend to federal prison officials that Stewart serve her time at a minimum-security facility in Danbury, Conn., close to her home in Westport.

"I believe that you have suffered, and will continue to suffer, enough," the judge said.

But Cedarbaum, citing nationwide confusion over a recent Supreme Court ruling on sentencings, allowed Stewart to postpone the sentence while her lawyers appeal her conviction — a process that could take months, and that legal experts have called an uphill battle.

Just before she was sentenced, Stewart — who during her trial spoke only to declare her innocence — rose from her seat and, her voice breaking almost to the point of sobs, told the judge she feared her life would be "completely destroyed."

Then, in an extraordinary change of demeanor, Stewart walked down the courthouse steps, approached a microphone and denounced the scandal as full of "such venom and such gore — I mean it's just terrible."

Smiling and showing her well-honed comfort with TV cameras, she even suggested fans could "continue to show your support" by subscribing to her magazines and buying her line of homemaking products.

And she vowed: "I'll be back. I will be back. Whatever I have to do in the next few months, I hope the months go by quickly. I'm used to all kinds of hard work, as you know, and I'm not afraid."

Investors sent the stock of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia up 37 percent, or $3.17 to close at $11.81 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Stewart resigned as CEO of the company when she was indicted last year and gave up her seat on the board after she was convicted. She remains its leading creative force and holds the title of founding editorial director.

In a four-page letter to the judge on the eve of sentencing, Stewart touted her company's success and said she was still "abysmally confused and ill prepared for what is described to me as the next step in this process."

She pleaded for leniency: "My hopes that my life will not be completely destroyed lie entirely in your hands." It was signed, "Most sincerely, Martha Stewart."

Prosecutors also released the pre-sentencing letter they sent to the judge, a document that brushed aside defense claims Stewart and Bacanovic should get lighter sentences because of exemplary conduct in their lives.

"Most of the good works cited by both defendants — showing kindness and compassion for friends, family, staff and colleagues going through difficult times, and acting as a role model for others in their professional lives — are what one should expect of decent, hardworking people," they wrote.

The prison sentence punctuated a chain of events that began on Dec. 27, 2001, when Stewart, in a brief phone call from a Texas tarmac on her way to a Mexican vacation, sold 3,928 shares of ImClone Systems Inc., a biotechnology company run by her longtime friend Sam Waksal.

Prosecutors alleged that Bacanovic, now 42, ordered his assistant to tip Stewart that Waksal was trying to sell his shares. ImClone announced negative news the next day that sent the stock plunging. Stewart saved $51,000.

Stewart and Bacanovic always maintained she sold because of a preset plan to unload the stock when it fell to $60.