Judge Dismisses Pamela Smart’s New Trial Petition in 1990 Murder Case

Pamela Smart’s latest attempt to overturn her conviction has been rejected by a New Hampshire judge. Smart, who is serving life in prison for her role in the 1990 killing of her husband, Gregory Smart, had asked the court to grant her a new trial.

The judge dismissed her petition after reviewing the arguments raised by her attorneys.

Smart, now 59, filed a habeas corpus petition in January. Her lawyers argued that several constitutional issues had affected her conviction and requested relief from her life sentence.

Merrimack County Superior Court Judge James Kennedy held a hearing in July. On Thursday, he granted the state’s request to dismiss the petition. Kennedy said Smart’s earlier appeals had already raised some claims.

She also could have raised the other claims during those appeals. He found no valid reason to overturn her conviction based on the arguments in the petition.

Smart was 22 and working as a high school media coordinator when she began a relationship with 15-year-old student William Flynn. Flynn later became involved in the plot to kill Smart’s husband.

Questions Over Trial Transcripts

Instagram | thescaryfact | Pamela Smart lost her latest appeal for a new trial in the 1990 murder of her husband, Gregory Smart.

One key issue involved secretly recorded conversations between Smart and Flynn. Her attorneys said prosecutors gave the jury transcripts that included words the recordings did not clearly contain.

The disputed words included “killed” in the statement “you had your husband killed,” “busted” in “I’m gonna be busted,” and “murder” in “this would have been the perfect murder.”

Smart’s legal team cited a forensic study that examined how written transcripts can affect people listening to unclear audio. The study suggested that listeners may rely on written words even when those words do not match what they can actually hear.

Kennedy questioned the study’s relevance. He noted that the study was not published or available in full. He also said the description provided by Smart’s lawyers did not establish specific inaccuracies in the transcripts.

The judge also rejected arguments involving intense media coverage and allegedly faulty jury instructions.

The 1990 Killing

Gregory Smart was fatally shot in Derry, New Hampshire, in 1990. Prosecutors argued that Smart helped orchestrate the killing through her relationship with Flynn.

Flynn testified that Smart wanted her husband killed because she feared losing everything in a divorce. He also said she threatened to end their relationship if he refused to participate.

Smart initially denied knowing about the plan. In 1991, however, a jury convicted her as an accomplice to first-degree murder along with other offenses. She received a life sentence without parole.

Her trial became one of the first major U.S. criminal trials to receive live television coverage from beginning to end.

Flynn served 25 years before his release in 2015. Three other teenagers involved in the killing also cooperated with prosecutors and have since been released.

Smart’s Change in Account

Instagram | thescaryfact | In 2024, Smart finally took responsibility for her husband’s death after decades of denial.

For decades, Smart maintained that she did not know about the plan to kill her husband. In 2024, she accepted responsibility for his death and said she had spent years shifting blame “almost as if it was a coping mechanism.”

Her latest court petition still challenged aspects of the original proceedings, but Kennedy found those claims insufficient to reopen the case.

The Smart case attracted widespread attention because of the murder, the relationship between a school employee and a student, and the highly publicized trial.

The case later inspired Joyce Maynard’s 1992 book “To Die For.” A 1995 film with the same title followed, starring Nicole Kidman and Joaquin Phoenix.

The latest ruling leaves Smart’s life-without-parole sentence in place. The decision also marks another unsuccessful attempt to challenge the conviction that has kept her imprisoned for more than three decades.

The case remains notable in U.S. criminal justice history for its unusual trial coverage, the involvement of teenage defendants, and the lasting public interest surrounding the 1990 killing of Gregory Smart.