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Pamela Smart
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pamela Ann Smart (née Wojas) (born August 16, 1967), is serving a life sentence for first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and witness tampering in New Hampshire. Smart was convicted for conspiring with her 16-year-old lover and his three friends to kill her 24-year-old husband, Gregory Smart, in Derry, New Hampshire. Smart is one of the most notorious criminals in the state's history.
She was convicted in March 1991, largely as a result of the testimony of her conspirators and secretly-taped conversations with them. Smart could have been charged with capital murder, but the prosecution decided against it.
Smart was accused of seducing 15-year-old William "Billy" Flynn and threatening to leave him unless he killed her husband. Flynn did so with the help of three friends on May 1, 1990. Smart met Flynn at "Project Self-Esteem" at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, New Hampshire, where Smart and Flynn were both volunteers. Smart was employed as a media services coordinator at Winnacunnet, and Flynn was a sophomore.
Smart, to this date, proclaims her innocence at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York State where she is serving a life sentence. Smart was transferred from the New Hampshire State Prison for Women in Goffstown in 1993. She has recently claimed indirect responsibility for her husband's murder by admitting that if she had not had an affair with Flynn, Flynn would not have committed the crime.
Albert Johnson, Smart's attorney from Boston, Massachusetts, is nationally known for his high-profile clients, such as Patty Hearst and F. Lee Bailey. In April 2004, the First U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a 2002 ruling by a federal judge who rejected her federal habeas petition. Previous to her federal appeal, Smart had exhausted all judicial appeals at the state level. In July 2005, the New Hampshire Executive Council unanimously denied a pardon request for "any conditions the governor may seek to impose."
Smart's trial was widely watched and was likened to a "media circus." The trial spawned a television movie starring Helen Hunt and Chad Allen and inspired the Joyce Maynard novel To Die For, which was adapted into a 1995 film starring Nicole Kidman. The case was also the subject of several best-selling true crime books, including Teach Me To Kill and Deadly Lessons.
Smart went to high school at Pinkerton Academy in Derry, where she was a cheerleader. She went to college at Florida State University and graduated with honors with a communications degree. In prison, Smart has completed two masters degrees, in literature and legal studies.