I rolled my eyes when told to follow up on a recent magazine series about Pam Smart.

Nothing to see here, I figured. Old news, from a story no one wanted to talk about anymore.

I was wrong.

Colorful Concord defense attorney Mark Sisti, who defended Smart 25 years ago, is still trying to prove that Smart didn’t mastermind a plot to have her husband killed, execution style, in the couple’s Derry condo.

In fact, Sisti told me he had opened a letter connected to the Smart case 10 minutes before I called. He said Smart’s new strategy is in the works.

“It had to do with what we’re talking about,” said Sisti, who’s been practicing law for 37 years. “The best information I can give you is we’re doing some type of review on some of the forensic evidence.”

It’s the story that keeps on giving, one that isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Not with a new governor and Executive Council set to take control next year, leaving open the possibility, albeit a small one, that Smart could be pardoned in 2017.

And not with a feminist icon like Dr. Eleanor Pam covering Smart’s back like a Secret Service agent shadowing the president, while stating theories of what really happened in 1990 that will blow your mind.

Does that sound like a case that is destined to fade away in the coming months? This was an event that had news outlets, from the National Enquirer to the New York Times, salivating.

When asked if the forensic evidence was new, Sisti said, “I’m saying that there is some old stuff that should be looked at through the lens of new technology.”

To which Concord attorney Paul Maggiotto, who prosecuted Smart, told me, “He’s got his head up his ass, and I love Mark. We are from the same hometown, Buffalo, we’re both Buffalo Bills fans. I’m sitting here saying good luck to him.”

Like I said, the story that keeps giving.

In the end, Smart, a media coordinator at Winnacunnet High School, was convicted of planning the murder of her husband, Gregg Smart, using her sex appeal to seduce, then convince, a student named Billy Flynn to shoot him.

At the time of the murder, Smart was 22, Flynn 16.

Flynn, who made a deal with prosecutors, has since been released from prison after serving 25 years. The other three students involved in the plot have also been paroled, leaving Smart as the lone individual still being held.

And with a life sentence without the possibility of parole, things don’t look good for Smart.

Hold on, though, Sisti says. First of all, the jury was not sequestered, something that baffles him to this day.

And second, the circus atmosphere surrounding the trial made Ringling Bros. seem like small potatoes. Does anyone really believe Smart got a fair trial?

“You can’t even understand it unless you saw it,” Sisti told me. “It was the infancy of Court TV, and in fact I think it was the first Court TV deal. It was working contrary to what is generally happening today where they insulate courtrooms from the jury and goings on. There is some control there. I would say 50 percent of the attendees were the media and they were lined up through the hallways.”

I asked Sisti how the jury might have been prejudiced.

“Most of the media had already made her out to be the black widow,” Sisti said. “It was basically the b---- who has a young lover and wanted to get rid of her husband.”

Further, Sisti said he didn’t trust the boys’ testimony, which occurred only after each had reached a plea agreement for a reduced sentence.

“There was training,” Sisti told me, “so they would get up there and say what they had to say in order to save their asses.”

But what about Cecelia Pierce, who wore a wire and taped Smart? Jurors said after the trial that those recordings represented the single most damning piece of evidence.

Ask Sisti and he mentions the fact that Pierce knew about the plot ahead of time and searched for a weapon to commit the murder. She got a sweet deal, too, Sisti told me.

“Cecelia Pierce could have been hit with a felony,” Sisti said. “The claim was that she attempted to procure a firearm for murder and she walked away with a new dress and a hairdo. She gets to walk away with nothing if she plants a wire on herself and starts a conversation.”

(Pierce, who lives in Albany, N.H., did not return a voice message left at the number I found under her name).

Another big piece to this legal, surreal picture is Eleanor Pam, whose resume is stacked with graduate degrees, pioneering efforts to reduce violence against women and policies introduced to stop the harassment of women in the work place.

She’s been allied with Smart since the beginning, after helping a friend, a nun and former cop, who had been imprisoned for killing the man who raped her.

There, in the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York, Smart heard about Dr. Pam and sought her as an educational mentor. Smart has since earned two master’s degrees, in law and English.

She’s also earned Dr. Pam’s respect and trust, meaning the good doctor is convinced Smart is innocent of any crime. Dr. Pam was part of an HBO documentary on Smart and appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, hopeful someone, somewhere, would hear her.

“This is worth it, and I believe in her,” Dr. Pam, a native New Yorker, said by phone from her winter home in Florida. “With all my experience, background, heart and mind, absolutely.”

Dr. Pam said the Pierce recordings meant little. They’re barely audible in many spots, and the transcripts submitted during the trial were never authenticated, she said.

She also took shots at the media, which included a few movies, one of which was inspired by New Hampshire novelist Joyce Maynard.

“That character portrayed is evil,” Dr. Pam told me. “People ran with the narrative and filled in things and things got even worse, the story of a teacher who seduced this teenage boy who was virginal and convinced him through sex to murder her husband.”

Dr. Pam had lots to say about that and more. She said Flynn had had several sexual encounters with multiple partners by the time he killed Gregg Smart, more, in fact, than Pam Smart.

She said Flynn had used cocaine to help him cry on the stand. And she said Smart incriminated herself on tape because she was conducting her own investigation and knew Pierce was wired.

“I could talk to a million journalists and none of it comes out,” Dr. Pam told me.

Of course, there are those who have one word for comments and opinions made by people like Sisti and Dr. Pam:

Well, maybe two words.

One is baloney.

Maggiotto had little to gain by returning my call, but he did nevertheless. In fact, we talked for quite a while.

“I haven’t seen any argument that says the evidence shows she didn’t commit this crime,” Maggiotto said.

When I told him about Sisti and Dr. Pam, Maggiotto’s passion rushed out.

“What the f--- do they know? Excuse my vulgarity,” he told me.

He continued: “There are two questions here. Should Pam Smart get out of jail because she’s innocent? No, the evidence is overwhelming that she is not innocent. Sit down and listen to the tapes, in addition to the three boys and Cecelia Pierce testifying against her.

“Next, should Pam Smart get out of jail because she had an unfair trial due to media publicity? Again, I would say absolutely not, because this issue was looked at by the New Hampshire Supreme Court.”

As for mercy for someone serving life with no parole, Maggiotto said there’s room to consider a pardon.

Not for Smart, however.

“There are a host of other people who are more deserving than Pam Smart,” Maggiotto said. “They’ve taken responsibility for their actions.”

Before Smart could be pardoned, Maggiotto told me the governor must review the case, then submit the request to the Executive Council for final approval.

So I called Governor-elect Chris Sununu, who did not return my voice message, as though he had other, more pressing matters to attend to.

Meanwhile, new evidence is needed for another trial, and Sisti, remember, said he’s looking into that. In fact, there’s lots of evidence colleting dust in the New Hampshire Records and Archives on Fruit Street, Maggiotto said.

“I was involved in a recount for someone recently at the archives,” Maggiotto told me. “Once the guy there knew I had done the Smart case, he started complaining to me about all the boxes they have on the case. Clearly, everything is there if anyone wants to look at it.”

The guess here is someone will.

(Ray Duckler can be reached at 369-3304, rduckler@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @rayduckler.)

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