Pamela Smart lawyers are challenging her murder conviction for the 1990 killing of her husband, Gregory Smartarguing in a new legal filing that he “did not receive the fair trial he was entitled to.”
In a petition for writ of habeas corpus filed on Monday, January 5 and heard by Us WeeklyPamela’s lawyers wrote that Smart’s constitutional rights were denied during her trial, which they said several errors were made.
“Pamela Smart’s case was subjected to a type of media scrutiny the world had never seen before. … It was a media trial in its purest form,” the petition read in part.
In March 1991, Pamela’s 14-day trial took place in New Hampshire, where she was accused of organizing the murder of her husbandaccording to the New Hampshire Bar Association.
Almost a year earlier, Gregory was fatally shot at his home in Derry by a teenage girl with whom Pamela is accused of having an affair, the organization reported. Gregory’s body was found on May 1, 1990. He was 24 years old.
The teenager allegedly involved in the affairthen 15 years old William “Billy” Flynnwas a student at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, where Pamela worked as a media coordinator, The Associated Press reported.
UPDATE – 12/18/25 at 12:05pm ET: Brian Walshe was sentenced on Thursday, December 18th to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of his wife, Ana Walshe UPDATE – 12/15/25 at 12:10pm ET: Walshe was sentenced for the murder of his wife on Monday, December 5th. of six (…)
At the end of Pamela’s trial, she was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, accessory to first-degree murder and witness tampering, according to the New Hampshire Bar Association. He was 22 years old at the time of his conviction.
Pamela is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole, according to her lawyers. For the past 30 years, they said, she has been incarcerated at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women in New York.
The habeas corpus petition, which seeks to overturn the conviction, cites “groundbreaking forensic research and multiple constitutional violations showing she was convicted through the use of misleading evidence that shaped and distorted what jurors heard,” Zernhelt Law LLC, the firm representing her, said in a news release shared with we.
The petition was filed in New Hampshire and New York.
In the legal challenge, her lawyers argue that a new scientific study undermines key evidence used to convict Pamela, 57.
They allege the jury was given misleading audio tapes that assigned “words to Ms. Smart that are not heard on the accompanying recordings, steering jurors toward a predetermined and biased interpretation and conclusion.”
“Modern science confirms what common sense has always told us: when people are handed a script, they inevitably listen to the words they are shown,” one of Pamela’s attorneys. Matthew Zernhelthe said in a statement.
The lawyers also allege that the jury’s verdict was heavily influenced by media coverage and that there was an “unauthorized acceptance of guilt”.
Prior to the Jan. 5 plea, Pamela requested a leniency hearing, which 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 “that the State maintains that Ms. Smart received a fair trial and that her convictions were legally obtained and upheld on appeal.”
A verdict has been reached in the retrial for the murder of Karen Read. Read’s second trial ended on Wednesday, June 18, after a jury found her not guilty of second-degree murder in the 2022 death of her then-boyfriend, John O’Keefe. Read, 45, was also found not guilty of leaving the scene of an accident. The (…)
Flynn was also convicted in connection with the murder of her husband, as well as three of Flynn’s friends, according to the New Hampshire Bar Association.
In 1990, Flynn shot Gregory in the head after he was accused of breaking into the Smarts’ home with another teenager. Patrick RandallAnd, who allegedly held Gregory at knifepoint while he was shot, The Associated Press reported.
Flynn and Randall were sentenced to 28 years to life in prison on one count of second-degree murder, according to The Associated Press. Two other teenagers were also convicted in connection with Gregory’s death.
Flynn and his friends have been released from jail, according to the New Hampshire Bar Association.
In a statement, Zernhelt said Pamela’s “conviction cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny and must be overturned before it further claims her life.”
Two movies are based on Pamela’s case, according to the New Hampshire Bar Association: Murder in New Hampshire: The Pamela Smart Story starring Helen Hunt and Chad Allen, as well as To Diewith Nicole Kidman and Joaquin Phoenix.