A New Hampshire judge on Thursday rejected Pamela Smart’s attempt to overturn her 1991 conviction for her role in the murder of her husband, siding with the state.
In 1991, Smart was convicted as an accomplice to first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. She was convicted for her role in a plot to murder her husband, a 22-year-old high school media coordinator who had an affair with a 15-year-old student.
One of the issues heard in Merrimack County Superior Court during Smart’s habeas corpus petition in July focused on evidence presented at her original trial.
Her attorneys argued that the trial relied on inaccurate transcripts of body-wire recordings, which were presented by the state to the jury and played a central role in her conviction.
Smart made a similar argument about the transcripts in her direct appeal 33 years ago, but the New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that she had not identified the specific inaccuracies in the transcripts.
In her recent habeas corpus petition, Smart again raised the issue of inaccurate transcripts, along with a claim that she received ineffective counsel.
“Even accepting all of the facts in the Petition as true, where those facts cannot establish that inaccuracies in the transcripts caused prejudice to the Petitioner, they must and do fail to merit habeas relief,” Judge James Kennedy wrote in his order.
Her original trial was a media sensation that spurred books, TV shows and even a movie. It was also the first murder case televised nationally.
Smart’s attorneys also argued in her appeal that media attention prevented her from getting a fair trial.
Smart’s attorneys state that news coverage of her conviction was “unconstitutionally tainted by an inflammatory news media story in violation of her due process rights,” court records show.
Smart specifically points to a WMUR-TV broadcast that aired several nights before jury selection began.
The court followed the New Hampshire Supreme Court’s earlier ruling on the issue, which found that media attention did not play a role in the outcome of her case.
“Mere familiarity is not sufficient to presume prejudice,” the New Hampshire Supreme Court wrote.
Smart is currently serving time at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York.
Billy Flynn, the 15-year-old student who fatally shot Smart’s husband, Gregory Smart in Derry, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and testified against Smart at trial. He was released in 2015 after serving nearly 25 years in prison.
His friend Patrick Randall, who held a knife to Gregory Smart’s throat while Flynn fired the fatal shot, was also freed that same year.
