Pamela Smart, 58, who is serving life in prison for orchestrating the murder of her husband Gregory Smart in 1990, appeared before a New Hampshire judge Monday as her lawyers urged the court to allow her latest petition for a new trial to proceed. Smart attended the hearing remotely from Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York.
Smart was a 22-year-old high school media coordinator when she began an affair with 15-year-old student William Flynn, who later fatally shot her husband at their Derry condominium. The case became one of the first high-profile trials in the nation to be broadcast live on television from start to finish. Smart has maintained her innocence but took full responsibility for Gregory Smart's death in a 2024 video.
What the Left Is Saying
Smart's legal team, led by attorney Matthew Zernhelt, argues that prosecutors provided jurors with inaccurate transcripts of secretly recorded conversations that contained words not audible on the recordings themselves. Among those words: "killed" in the phrase "you had your husband killed," "busted" in "I'm gonna be busted," and "murder" in "this would have been the perfect murder."
Zernhelt cited a forensic study showing that providing transcripts alongside muffled audio leads listeners to believe written text even when inaccurate. "Modern science confirms what common sense has always told us: when people are handed a script, they inevitably hear the words they are shown," Zernhelt said in a statement earlier this year. "Jurors were not evaluating the recordings independently — they were being directed toward a conclusion, and that direction decided the verdict."
Defense lawyers also argued the verdict was tainted by intensive media attention surrounding one of America's first high-profile cases involving a sexual affair between a school employee and a student. They further claimed faulty jury instructions required jurors to find premeditation without instructing them to consider only evidence presented at trial.
What the Right Is Saying
Lawyers for New Hampshire asked Merrimack County Superior Court Judge James Kennedy to dismiss the petition, arguing that nearly all of Smart's claims are barred because they were either already raised on appeal and resolved by the state Supreme Court or could have been raised previously but were not.
Assistant Attorney General John Drennan said none of Smart's claims are supported by facts. He noted that during trial, defense lawyers only expressed concern about transcript "doubling" when two voices spoke simultaneously — not specific alleged inaccuracies. The judge instructed jurors to use what they heard if it differed from transcripts, and the state Supreme Court found Smart's lawyers made no "particularized showing of inaccuracies."
Drennan likened transcript discrepancies to someone viewing text of a transcribed voicemail before listening to the actual message. "Maybe cognitive bias has set in, but it doesn't mean that I can't, when listening, say, 'Hey, I'm not sure that's right.' I know to review it. I know to be skeptical."
What the Numbers Show
Smart was convicted of being an accomplice to first-degree murder and other crimes, receiving a mandatory life sentence without parole — a penalty her lawyers argue New Hampshire law did not mandate for that particular charge.
William Flynn, who fired the fatal shot, served 25 years before being released in 2015. He and co-conspirator Patrick Randall both pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with sentences of 28 years to life and were granted parole in 2015. Two other teenagers involved also served prison terms and have been released.
Smart has unsuccessfully sought sentence reduction hearings multiple times from an elected state council that approves court appointments and contracts. She appealed one rejection to the state Supreme Court, which dismissed her petition in 2023. Her latest petition was filed after Governor Kelly Ayotte rejected her request last year to bring the matter before the council again.
The Bottom Line
Judge Kennedy took Smart's petition under advisement and plans to issue a ruling within 30 to 60 days. If he allows the petition to proceed, it would open a path for deeper examination of her conviction claims. If he dismisses it, Smart's legal options will be further constrained.
The case raises questions about jury instructions in criminal trials and how transcript accuracy is verified when audio evidence is central to prosecution. Smart took full responsibility for her husband's death in 2024, saying she spent years deflecting blame "almost as if it was a coping mechanism." Whether that acknowledgment affects future legal proceedings remains to be seen.