Pamela Smart challenges husband’s murder conviction, says trial was unfair
Pamela Smart Lawyers are challenging her 1990 murder conviction for killing her husband, Gregory Smartargued in a new legal filing that she “did not receive the fair trial she deserved.”
In a habeas corpus petition filed on Monday, January 5, Viewer US WeeklyPamela’s attorneys wrote that Smart’s constitutional rights were denied during her trial, in which they said a number of errors were made.
The petition states in part: “Pamela Smart’s case has been subject to media scrutiny the world has never seen… This is a trial by media in its purest form.”
In March 1991, Pamela went on a 14-day trial in New Hampshire on charges of plotting to murder her husband, according to the New Hampshire Bar Association.
About a year ago, Gregory was shot dead in his Derry home by a teenager accused of having an affair with Pamela, the organization reported. Gregory’s body was discovered on May 1, 1990. He was 24 years old at the time.
The teen, who was allegedly involved in the affair, was just 15 at the time William “Billy” FlynnAccording to the Associated Press, Pamela was a student at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, where she worked as the media coordinator.
At the end of Pamela’s trial, she was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and witness tampering, according to the New Hampshire Bar Association. She was 22 years old when she was convicted.
Pamela is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, according to her attorney. They said she had been incarcerated at New York’s Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women for the past 30 years.
The habeas corpus petition seeking to overturn the conviction cited “groundbreaking forensic research and multiple constitutional violations that show she was convicted through the use of deceptive evidence that shaped and distorted what jurors heard,” Zernhelt Law LLC, the law firm representing her, said in a release. us.
Petitions were filed in New Hampshire and New York.
In the legal challenge, her lawyers argued that a new scientific study undermined key evidence in Pamela’s conviction, 57.
They claim the jury was given misleading tapes in which Ms. Smart was “assigned words that are inaudible on the accompanying recording, leading jurors to predetermined and biased interpretations and conclusions.”
“Modern science confirms what common sense has always told us: When people get a script, they inevitably hear the words they see,” said one of Pamela’s lawyers. Matthew Zernhutsaid in a statement.
The attorneys also claimed that the jury’s verdict was strongly influenced by media coverage and that there were “unauthorized guilty pleas.”
Prior to filing the petition on January 5, Pamela requested a commutation hearing but was denied by New Hampshire’s governor Kelly Ayotte in May, according to the Associated Press.
A spokesman for the New Hampshire Attorney General addressed Pamela’s latest legal challenge to her conviction, telling The Associated Press, “The state maintains that Ms. Smart received a fair trial and that her conviction was lawfully obtained and upheld on appeal.”
The verdict has been handed down in Karen Reid’s murder retrial. Reed’s second trial ended on Wednesday, June 18, when a jury found her not guilty of second-degree murder in the 2022 death of her then-boyfriend, John O’Keefe. Reed, 45, was also found not guilty of leaving the scene of an accident. this […]
Flynn was also sentenced for killing her husband and three of Flynn’s friends, according to the New Hampshire Bar Association.
In 1990, Gregory was accused of entering the Smarts’ home with another teenager and Flynn shot him in the head. Patrick RandallHe allegedly pointed a knife at Gregory when he was shot, according to the Associated Press.
According to the Associated Press, Flynn and Randall were sentenced to 28 years to life in prison for second-degree murder. Two other teenagers were also sentenced in connection with Gregory’s death.
Flynn and his friends are now out of prison, according to the New Hampshire Bar Association.
Zernhut said in a statement that Pamela’s “conviction cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny and must be overturned before her life can be taken.”
According to the New Hampshire Bar Association, two movies were based on Pamela’s case: New Hampshire Murders: The Pamela Smart Story Starring Helen Hunt and Chad Allen, and die forwith Nicole Kidman and Joaquin Phoenix.
