The jury in the Martha Sterwart case are deciding whether the celebrity homemaker lied to investigators and covered up her sale of stock in ImClone Systems Inc.
The eight women and four men retired to the deliberation room after the federal judge presiding over the case issued instructions to them about the charges against Ms Stewart and her former stockbroker, Mr Peter Bacanovic.
Although each of the four counts against Stewart carries a possible maximum five-year prison term, she would most likely receive a much lighter sentence even if convicted on all counts.
Judge Ms Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum spent more than an hour and a half reading through each of the counts contained in the indictment and the specific acts that led to the charges.
"You are to consider the charges separately against each defendant ... as if that defendant were being tried alone," Ms Cedarbaum told the eight women and four men.
"You can find one guilty without finding the other guilty. The fact the defendants are being tried together is not evidence of anything," she said.
Neither Ms Stewart, a former model and stockbroker who founded Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc., nor Mr Bacanovic took the witness stand during the trial.