NEW YORK, Sept 15 (AFP) - US lifestyle diva Martha Stewart said Wednesday she would seek to serve her five-month prison sentence for obstruction of justice as soon as possible "to put this nightmare behind me and get on with my life."
Stewart, convicted earlier this year on charges stemming from a dodgy stock deal, said she would ask the judge in the case to assign her to prison, without waiting for her appeal to be heard.
"I suppose the best word to use for this very harsh and difficult decision is finality," Stewart, who has built a multimillion-dollar business empire, told reporters in New York.
"So I have decided to serve my sentence now, to put this nightmare behind me and get on with my life and living as soon as possible."
Stewart said her lawyers "remain very confident in the strength of my appeal" and would continue to pursue the effort to overturn the conviction.
The move appeared aimed at ending the uncertainty weighing on her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, even though she has left the board and the post of chief executive.
She said she would ask to serve the five months at the federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, "which is nearest to my home and close enough so my 90-year-old mother will be able to visit me," but acknowledged that it was possible she may be sent elsewhere.
"I also hope it will be possible to begin serving my sentence in the next few weeks -- so I will be out of prison as early as next March."
Stewart, 62, and her former broker, Peter Bacanovic, were convicted in March of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false statements over Stewart`s sale of nearly 4,000 shares in the biotechnology company ImClone Systems.
She did not face criminal charges of insider trading, but of thwarting the probe into the questionable trade.
At her trial, prosecutors charged that Stewart was tipped off by Bacanovic to sell the ImClone stock in late 2001, just before a government announcement about an ImClone drug sent the share price plummeting.
Stewart and her broker had argued that they had a pre-existing agreement to sell the stock if the price dropped below 60 dollars a share.