Key facts
- Pamela Smart, convicted in 1990 for orchestrating her husband's murder, is seeking a new trial.
- Her lawyers argue constitutional violations, including inaccurate trial transcripts and faulty jury instructions, tainted the original verdict.
- The state contends that most of Smart's claims have already been addressed or could have been raised on appeal.
- Smart, who was a 22-year-old media coordinator at the time, began an affair with a 15-year-old student who carried out the murder.
- The student shooter was released in 2015 after serving 25 years of his sentence.
Pamela Smart, who is serving a life sentence for orchestrating the 1990 murder of her husband by a teenage student, is seeking a new trial. Her legal team argues that constitutional violations, including the use of inaccurate trial transcripts and faulty jury instructions, compromised her conviction. Smart's lawyers claim that prosecutors provided jurors with transcripts containing words like "killed," "busted," and "murder" that were not audible in surreptitiously recorded conversations.
Attorneys for the state, however, are urging the judge to dismiss the petition, asserting that most of Smart's claims have already been adjudicated on appeal or could have been raised earlier. They noted that the defense at trial only raised concerns about voice doubling in recordings, and the judge instructed jurors to rely on what they heard if tapes differed from transcripts. The state Supreme Court previously found that Smart's lawyers did not demonstrate specific inaccuracies or prejudice from the transcripts.
Smart's petition also touches on claims of ineffective assistance of counsel and argues the case should have been tried in New York, not New Hampshire. She has previously sought sentence reduction hearings unsuccessfully. In a 2024 video, Smart took full responsibility for her husband's death, stating she had deflected blame for years. Her trial, which involved an affair with a 15-year-old student, was one of the first in the nation to be broadcast live on television and inspired the book and film "To Die For."