Case file 0007
Gregory Smart: The Murder Plot and the Judgment That Remains
A 1990 death in Derry, the evidence against Pamela Smart and the court decision issued in September 2026.
Gregory Smart was twenty-four when he was killed at his Derry, New Hampshire home on May 1, 1990. The case against his wife, Pamela, concerned planning and participation in a plot rather than an allegation that she personally fired the fatal shot. She was convicted of accomplice to first-degree murder, conspiracy and witness tampering. [S1]
An adult's influence over teenagers
Pamela was a school media-services director when she became involved with fifteen-year-old William Flynn. The New Hampshire Supreme Court's 1993 account describes the plan that the jury was entitled to find: Flynn would kill Gregory with help from other teenagers, and the scene would appear to be a burglary. This was an adult's sexual involvement with a child, not a relationship between peers. [S1]
The distinction matters to how the case is understood. Responsibility was not limited to identifying who held the gun. The prosecution also had to connect Pamela to the planning and subsequent conduct on which the charges rested.
Testimony and recorded conversations
The 1993 appeal addressed intercepted conversations, transcripts, witness questioning and intense publicity. The supreme court rejected the challenges before it and affirmed. The case therefore included legal scrutiny of the material used at trial, rather than a verdict established by television coverage alone. [S1]
The recordings and testimony had different roles. Participants described a plan and events; recordings supplied additional material against which accounts could be assessed. Disagreement about their meaning became part of later litigation, but filing a challenge did not itself erase the judgment.
The 2026 petition
Pamela sought habeas relief asking for her convictions to be vacated, a new trial and a new sentencing. Merrimack County Superior Court held a hearing on July 20, 2026. Its September 17 order granted the respondent's motion to dismiss. This was the outcome of that petition, not a new acquittal. [S2]
The order also rejected the argument that an accomplice-to-first-degree-murder conviction did not carry the mandatory life-without-parole punishment applied in her case. The court treated accomplice liability as liability for the offense itself under the law it discussed. That was the court's conclusion in this litigation, not a general explanation of sentencing in every jurisdiction. [S2]
Different paths after the same killing
AP's September 2026 report notes that Flynn was released in 2015 after serving a 25-year sentence, while Pamela's sentence remained life without parole. Those different outcomes do not mean the case against her was overturned. They concern separate defendants and judgments. [S3]
Gregory can be overshadowed by the notoriety attached to his wife's name. The legal chronology returns the case to a specific death and specific decisions: the murder in 1990, the 1991 convictions, the 1993 affirmation and the 2026 dismissal. The last event is another chapter in litigation; it does not replace the life lost at the beginning.