Pamela Smart said she admitted “for the first time” she was responsible for her husband’s murder after she had deflected blame with “warped logic” for decades.
“I found myself responsible for something I absolutely did not want to be responsible for: the murder of my husband,” Smart said in a video message from jail obtained by Fox News Digital.
He said this revelation came in a writing class in prison, where his instructor encouraged the group to “search deeply within your mind, within your heart.”
Smart, now 56, has spent nearly 34 years behind bars as part of a sentence of life without parole for her role. The 1990 murder of Gregory Smart. The murder was committed by four teenagers, one of whom was her friend, with whom she was having a love affair.
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In this 1991 file photo, Pamela Smart is seen testifying at Rockingham County Superior Court in Exeter, New Hampshire. (The Associated Press)
In May 1990, Billy Flynn, then 16, shot Gregory Smart in the head while Patrick Randall (then 17) held a knife to his throat.
Pamela Smart, who was 22 at the time and was Flynn’s program coach at Hampton, new HampshireHigh school, secretly hanging out with Flynn.
Flynn testified during the trial that Pamela had threatened to break up with him if he did not do so. Kill her husband.
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Flynn, Randall and two other teens who were the getaway drivers have completed their sentences and are now released.
“It has taken me decades to get to this point where I can fully understand and accept responsibility for my inexcusable actions and behavior,” Pamela wrote in a letter to New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu in March, pleading for clemency.
Pamela Smart has accepted responsibility for her husband’s murder in her latest plea for clemency. (AP Photo/John Pierre Lassagne, File)
She said in the letter that she lied to herself and “reasoned that since I was not there the night Greg was killed, since I did not fire the shot, I am not responsible.”
“I became comfortable in my own distorted logic, because I didn’t want to face the fact that Greg’s murder was no one else’s fault but my own,” Pamela wrote.
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In a videotaped statement from New York’s Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, where she is serving her sentence, she used this “perverse” rationalization as a “coping mechanism.” Because the reality of being so responsible was very hard for me.”
Greg’s cousin, Val Fryatt, couldn’t believe the long pauses and Pamela’s emotions in the 4.5-minute video, he said. associated Press He said: “She continued to evade the issue… without acknowledging what made her ‘fully responsible’.”
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In this March 9, 1991 file photo, Patrick Randall, 17, testifies in Rockingham County Superior Court in Exeter, N.H. Randall held a knife to Gregory Smart’s throat in May 1990 while Billy Flynn, Pamela Smart’s teenage boyfriend, shot him in the head. Flynn was eventually released on parole; Smart is serving a life sentence without parole after being convicted of conspiracy to commit murder. (The Associated Press)
The video is part of an 83-page petition released June 7 that includes a long list of academic accomplishments, jobs and nearly 30 letters of support from fellow inmates, corrections staff, religious leaders and friends.
Even Peter Stern, Brooklyn Nets The CFO wrote a letter on his behalf.
This is the fourth time Pamela has asked the Governor and Executive Council of New Hampshire to pardon her sentence.
“I don’t want to die in jail,” she wrote.
The most recent attempt was made in March 2022, when he was refused His attorney, Mark Sisti, said he had the right to present his case “in a matter of minutes.”
Watch the full video of the jail statement
Sisti wrote in the petition that the petition “demonstrates overwhelming evidence” of “rehabilitation, remorse, self-reformation and genuine dedication to redemption.” “She has become mature beyond her years and has realized her role in her husband’s murder.”
Sisti told Fox News Digital that it is entirely up to the Governor’s Executive Council to hear Pamela’s petition.
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Pamela Smart is sworn in before testifying in her own defense in Rockingham County Court. (Getty Images)
The governor told Fox News Digital in an email that her petition will not be on the agenda for today’s meeting. The Executive Council said its next meeting is scheduled for June 26.
It is still uncertain whether his request will be considered or not, as the Governor has not made any commitment.
“New Hampshire’s process for requesting a sentence commutation or clemency is fair and thorough. Pamela Smart will be given the same opportunity to petition the Council for a hearing as any other individual,” Governor Sununu said in an emailed statement to Fox News Digital.
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Read the full petition
She said in a video statement that she can look back on mistakes she made decades ago, including failing to take responsibility for her actions.
“Now that I’m older and can look back on things, I see a lot of the mistakes I made, and I can see how bad my judgement was and how immature I was,” Pamela said in the video.
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“I’m a very different person than I was before. I’m more thoughtful. I think things through before I make a decision and I’m less impulsive and more responsible and mature than I was before.”
Pamela is believed to be the longest-serving female inmate at Bedford Hills Women’s Prison, where she was sent by the state of New Hampshire following her conviction in 1991.
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“I am respectfully asking for the opportunity to come before you, the New Hampshire Executive Council, and have an honest conversation with you about my incarceration, to accept responsibility, and to have honest conversations with you about your concerns and questions,” she said at the end of her recorded statement.
“If I could come in person or via video conference so we could have an honest conversation, I would be very grateful for that.”
