By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – Pamela Smart, convicted of conspiracy to commit the 1990 murder of her husband and sentenced to life without parole, is seeking an opportunity for a commutation hearing before the state’s Executive Council, her lawyer confirmed Tuesday.
In a brief video shot in May from Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York, she asks the five-member council for “an honest conversation with you about my incarceration, my acceptance of responsibility and any concerns you might have, any questions…” either by video link or in person.
A link to her new video is here https://vimeo.com/948765278/9ec230ccd5
In a section of the video entitled “accepting responsibility” she said through her experience in “Eve’s group” at the correctional facility, she was encouraged to go in to “spaces we did not want to” she became aware of her role in Gregg Smart’s death, at their home in Derry but she did not elaborate.
She said she was immature and is now “less impulsive” and now recognizes her “many mistakes.”
Prosecutors who have objected to her requests, which can be made every two years, said she has not shown remorse or a willingness to fully accept the responsibility for getting teenage boys to carry out the murder.
“I’m super hopeful,” said Mark Sisti, who defended her and has remained her staunch advocate throughout the years.
“She is a true example of rehabilitation and redemption and I think she would be held out as an example for everybody that you just don’t throw people away; that there is always a chance that (people) can redeem themselves in society,” he said.
It is possible that the five-member Executive Council could vote on whether to allow Smart to have a commutation hearing as early as June 29.
In the past, the council has been unwilling to offer her a hearing and the makeup of the group has not changed since the last request.
On March 23, 2023, the New Hampshire Supreme Court dismissed an appeal that could have compelled the council to hold a hearing.
Smart’s petition was unanimously dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
A copy of the order is here https://indepthnh.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/2023014smart-1-1.pdf.
On Feb. 14, 2023, the court heard Sisti, who has represented the New Hampshire woman for 33 years, ask them to provide her with “at least a little hope.”
Laura Lombardi, representing the state Attorney General’s Office, argued the state Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction to do so.
Friends of Smart from the maximum security prison in New York who have already been released said the sentence is unfair and wore T-Shirts in the court reading “Enough is Enough” to oral arguments.
One of the first trials to be broadcast on television, thousands watched in 1991 as the jury found that she wooed her teenage lover to commit the crime with his friends.
Smart has said she is sorry for the affair she had with William Flynn when he was 15 but has repeatedly denied orchestrating the murder that Flynn admitted to along with three friends from Seabrook.
Flynn told jurors Smart coerced him into killing her young husband. Flynn and the friends connected to the murder have all been released on parole.
The fact that Smart has not admitted she was involved in the murder has been an issue for the council.
Whether this video is enough to move the needle remains to be seen.
“We will not stop our attempts to free Pam Smart. At some point in time, this Governor and Council, or some other Governor and Council, will perform their duty with courage and objectivity and give Pam a true chance to make her case for re-entry into society. At some point, either this Governor and Council or a future Governor and Council will have the backbone to sit across from Pam, eye-to-eye, and truly hold a legitimate review of her outstanding achievements, rehabilitation, and redemption,” Sisti said following the ruling.
The council is elected every two years, as is the governor, and there is a periodic process that allows her to bring her commutation request to them again and again.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald, the former attorney general, recused himself from hearing Smart’s appeal.
It has been the attorney general’s recommendation over the years to deny Smart’s commutation request.
Attorney General John Formella said following the ruling, “It confirms the State’s position that Ms. Smart’s petition to the court presented a nonjusticiable, political question.”
In her new petition the video concludes with the multiple degrees she has earned while incarcerated including a master of science in law, master of fine arts in English literature, master in professional studies and a doctorate in ministry.
It states she has mentored and tutored thousands of women and assisted them in their legal matters.
