Pamela Smart, serving life, seeks a new trial as a New Hampshire judge weighs her latest petition
Smart’s lawyers say inaccurate trial transcripts and media influence tainted the verdict in a case that led to a life-without-parole sentence.
- On Monday, Pamela Smart, 58, is expected to appear virtually in court from the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women to argue that inaccurate evidence misled jurors during her 1990 murder conspiracy trial.
- Smart was a 22-year-old high school media coordinator when she began an affair with a 15-year-old student, William Flynn, who later fatally shot her husband, Gregory Smart, in their Derry home.
- Her lawyers argue prosecutors misled jurors with inaccurate transcripts of recorded conversations, claiming words like "killed," "busted," and "murder" were not actually audible on the recordings.
- State lawyers asked the judge to dismiss the petition, arguing that most claims were already resolved by the New Hampshire Supreme Court or could have been raised on prior appeal.
- Following New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte's rejection of her request for a council hearing last year, the case inspired Joyce Maynard's 1992 book "To Die For" and a 1995 film starring Nicole Kidman.
85 Articles
85 Articles
Pamela Smart Says Transcripts Doomed Her To Prison
This photo of Pamela Smart and her husband Gregg Smart was taken on their wedding day. COURTESY photo By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org CONCORD — Serving a life sentence with no chance for parole for orchestrating the murder of her husband, Pamela Smart keeps trying to get out of prison. And now, Merrimack County Superior Court Judge James Kennedy will decide if her claims that inaccurate transcripts helped prejudice the original 1991 jury agains…
After 35 Years in Prison, Pamela Smart Seeks a New Trial
Lawyers for Pamela Smart, who's serving life in prison for orchestrating the murder of her husband by her teenage student in 1990, hope that a New Hampshire judge will allow her latest petition for a new trial to move forward. The judge took the matter under advisement Monday after hearing...
Tape transcripts stir debate in Pamela Smart murder case
Pamela Smart took notes on a table at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York as her lawyers met with a judge in a New Hampshire courtroom, seeking to allow her efforts to overturn her 1991 conviction…
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