Martha Stewart announced yesterday that she would voluntarily begin serving a five-month sentence for lying about a stock trade even as she maintains her innocence and appeals the conviction.

“I cannot bear any longer the prolonged suffering while I and my people await vindication in the next step of the legal process,” the teary-eyed domestic diva told reporters at her Martha Stewart Living offices in Chelsea. “I am very sad knowing that I will miss the holiday season,” Stewart said, “and I will miss all of my pets – my two beloved, fun-loving dogs, my seven lively cats, my canaries, my horses, and even my chickens.”

Citing delays in her appeals process, Stewart, 63, said she opted to begin her sentence “to put this behind me and get on with my life and living as soon as possible.” She said she hopes to be home in time to plant her spring garden “and to truly get things growing again.”

After reading a 10-minute prepared statement, Stewart strode out of the room amid a standing ovation by company executives.

Lawyers for Stewart said they had no input into their client’s decision and would continue to press her appeal. “It was actually very sad for us,” said one lawyer, David Chesnoff, of Stewart’s announcement.

Legal experts described Stewart’s decision as a highly unusual move that could point to a lack of faith in the strength of her appeal.

“I think the bottom line here has to be that she has been told her chances of success on appeal are slim,” said New York University law professor Stephen Gillers. “I can’t imagine that anybody would submit to incarceration if they thought they had even a fair chance on appeal.”

Columbia University law professor John Coffee said people opt to go to jail during an appeal when they “do not think they have a very good chance and when they need to get on with their lives.”

While Stewart cited the latter as reason for her decision, Mr. Coffee described her appeal as a “longshot,” and the process of waiting it out as one that “actually involves greater anxiety, humiliation, frustration than getting it over with.”

As for the public’s perception of Stewart’s guilt or innocence following her decision, “I don’t think it makes Martha look better or worse,” Mr. Coffee said. “I think it makes her look rational.”

Stewart’s legal woes began in late 2001, when she sold nearly 4,000 shares of ImClone Systems stock a day before the Food and Drug Administration rejected the company’s cancer drug and shares prices plunged.

She was convicted in March of lying about the sale to investigators and sentenced in July to five months in prison and five months of house arrest.

A spokeswoman at the federal Bureau of Prisons said Stewart could begin serving her sentence at a minimum-security women’s prison in a matter of weeks.

Ms. Stewart’s first choice for incarceration, Connecticut’s Danbury Correctional Facility, is at capacity and she might have to go elsewhere. She must serve five months of house arrest when she gets out of jail.