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A judge rejects Pamela Smart’s latest bid for a new trial in 1990 accomplice to murder case

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Cite

Ramer, H. (2026, September 17). A judge rejects Pamela Smart’s latest bid for a new trial in 1990 accomplice to murder case. Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/news/world/united-states/a-judge-rejects-pamela-smart-s-latest-bid-for-a-new-trial-in-1990-accomplice-to-murder-case/article_c8fa7188-44fa-5c8e-99ec-6204880b1fb1.html

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Toronto Star · collected 2026-09-17 · by Holly Ramer

Quick Summary

A New Hampshire judge dismissed Pamela Smart's petition for a new trial related to her conviction from 1990 when she was found guilty of orchestrating the murder of her husband by her teenage student, William Flynn. The case garnered significant media attention as one of the first televised trials in the United States. In her latest attempt, Smart argued that prosecutors misled the jury with inaccurate transcripts and that the verdict was tainted by extensive media coverage and flawed jury instructions; however, Judge James Kennedy found these arguments without merit and dismissed them.
Written by AI on 2026-09-18, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

A New Hampshire judge dismissed Pamela Smart’s latest bid for a new trial in a 1990 murder case where she was convicted of orchestrating her husband's killing by her teenage lover. Now serving life without parole, Smart filed a petition for habeas corpus relief in January 2024, arguing that several constitutional violations occurred during her original trial. The judge, James Kennedy, ruled on August 17, 2023, rejecting the petition and stating that her claims either had already been raised or lacked merit. Smart, who was 22 at the time of the crime, was a high school media coordinator when she began an affair with Gregory Smart's 15-year-old student; he killed Gregory in Derry. The shooter received a reduced sentence and was released from prison in 2015, but Smart only admitted her role in orchestrating the murder in 2024, explaining that it had been a coping mechanism to deflect blame for years.

Written for “Pamela Smart Trial Rejection” on 2026-11-02, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Pamela Smart Trial Rejection
Crime & Law · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

Nothing to compare against. No article is close enough to this one for the pipeline to have linked or judged the pair.
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
15
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
7%
1 of 15 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
64/100
Toronto Star's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Crime & Law
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-18 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

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Who wrote this

Holly Ramer
4 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 Calling those statements “powerful and kind,” defense attorney James Rainsford said he also could speak about his client and his client’s family but decided not to.
2026-10-24 · assertive framing · Jury convicts man of rape, murder 14 years after UNC student’s death
🔮 Look no further than swing-state New Hampshire, where Democratic leaders are sounding the alarm about political challenges that could jeopardize Rep. Chris Pappas’ campaign for an open Senate seat and undermine the party’s ability to win races around the country.
2026-09-30 · assertive framing · Democrats want a blue wave. New Hampshire is Exhibit A for why that may not happen
🔮 After holding a hearing in July, Merrimack County Superior Court Judge James Kennedy on Thursday granted the state’s motion to dismiss the petition, saying her arguments already were or could have been raised during earlier appeals, and even if they hadn’t, lacked merit.
2026-09-17 · assertive framing · A judge rejects Pamela Smart’s latest bid for a new trial in 1990 accomplice to murder case
Also by Holly Ramer
Jury convicts man of rape, murder 14 years after UNC student’s death
2026-10-23 · Toronto Star
Democrats want a blue wave. New Hampshire is Exhibit A for why that may not happen
2026-09-30 · Toronto Star
Ex-youth detention center counselor faces sex assault trial in New Hampshire
2026-09-14 · Toronto Star
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.

Topics

CONCORD Derry Merrimack County N.H. New Hampshire

Subjects

Smart PERSON · 10× Flynn PERSON · 2× CONCORD GPE · 1× Derry GPE · 1× Gregory Smart PERSON · 1× James Kennedy PERSON · 1× Merrimack County GPE · 1× N.H. GPE · 1× New Hampshire GPE · 1× Pamela Smart PERSON · 1×

Narrative

She didn’t take responsibility for her husband’s death until 2024, saying she spent years deflecting blame “almost as if it was a coping mechanism.” Smart filed a petition for habeas corpus relief in January seeking to overturn her conviction over what her lawyers claimed were several constitutional violations.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-18
🔮 After holding a hearing in July, Merrimack County Superior Court Judge James Kennedy on Thursday granted the state’s motion to dismiss the petition, saying her arguments already were or could have been raised during earlier appeals, and even if they hadn’t, lacked merit.
2026-09-18 · Toronto Star
A judge rejects Pamela Smart’s latest bid for a new trial in 1990 accomplice to murder case · assertive framing

Claims (15 extracted, 1 hedged)

A New Hampshire judge on Thursday dismissed the latest petition for a new trial from Pamela Smart, who is serving life in prison for orchestrating the murder of her husband by her teenage student more than three decades ago. asserted
who → dismiss → student
Smart, 59, was a 22-year-old high school media coordinator when she began an affair with the 15-year-old boy who later fatally shot her husband, Gregory Smart, in Derry in 1990. asserted
who → begin → 1990
The shooter was freed in 2015 after serving a 25-year sentence. asserted
shooter → free → sentence
Though Smart denied knowledge of the plot at the time, she was convicted in 1991 of being an accomplice to first-degree murder and other crimes and was sentenced to life without parole. asserted
she → deny → parole
Her trial was one of the first in the nation to be broadcast live on television from start to finish. asserted
trial → broadcast → finish
She didn’t take responsibility for her husband’s death until 2024, saying she spent years deflecting blame “almost as if it was a coping mechanism.” Smart filed a petition for habeas corpus relief in January seeking to overturn her conviction over what her lawyers claimed were several constitutional violations. asserted
lawyers → take → conviction
After holding a hearing in July, Merrimack County Superior Court Judge James Kennedy on Thursday granted the state’s motion to dismiss the petition, saying her arguments already were or could have been raised during earlier appeals, and even if they hadn’t, lacked merit. uncertain
they → hold → merit
Among other things, Smart’s lawyers argued that prosecutors misled the jury by providing them with inaccurate transcripts of surreptitiously recorded conversations between Smart and her student intern that included words that were not audible on the recordings. asserted
that → argue → recordings
Among the words they claimed weren’t audible but appeared in the transcript was the word “killed” in the sentence “you had your husband killed,” the word “busted” in the sentence “I’m gonna be busted,” and the word “murder” in the sentence “this would have been the perfect murder. asserted
this → claim → sentence
In the petition, Smart’s lawyers described a forensic study suggesting that providing transcripts to juries along with muffled audio can lead listeners to believe the written text, even when it’s inaccurate. asserted
it → describe → text
But Kennedy said the study’s legal relevancy was “dubious” given that it wasn’t published or available to read in full and that even the description given by Smart’s attorneys failed to identify any inaccuracies. asserted
description → say → inaccuracies
The judge also rejected Smart’s arguments that the verdict was tainted by media attention and by faulty jury instructions. asserted
verdict → reject → instructions
The student, William Flynn, testified that Smart told him she needed her husband killed because she feared she would lose everything if they divorced and that she threatened to break up with Flynn if he didn’t kill her husband. asserted
he → testify → husband
Flynn and three other teens who participated in the plot cooperated with prosecutors, and all have since been released. asserted
all → participate → prosecutors
The case inspired Joyce Maynard’s 1992 book “To Die For” and the 1995 film of the same name, starring Nicole Kidman and Joaquin Phoenix. asserted
case → inspire → Kidman
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