Editing Pamela Smart (section)

==Trial==
Smart's trial was widely watched and garnered considerable media attention, partly because it was one of the first in the U.S. to allow TV cameras in the courtroom. She faced life in prison if convicted. The prosecution's case relied heavily on testimony from Smart's teenaged co-conspirators, who had secured their own [[Plea bargaining in the United States|plea bargains]] before her trial began.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2019/01/15/feature/the-enduring-appeal-of-pamela-smart-the-misunderstood-murderess/|title=Do you remember Pamela Smart?|last=Roig-Franzia|first=Manuel|date=January 15, 2019|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=February 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190202235307/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/style/wp/2019/01/15/feature/the-enduring-appeal-of-pamela-smart-the-misunderstood-murderess/|archive-date=February 2, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

When oral arguments began March 4, 1991, Assistant Attorney General Diane Nicolosi portrayed the teenagers as naïve victims of an "evil woman bent on murder." The prosecution portrayed Pamela Smart as the cold-blooded mastermind who controlled her underaged sex partner. Nicolosi claimed that Smart seduced Flynn to get him to murder her husband, so that she could avoid an expensive divorce and benefit from a $140,000 [[insurance fraud|life insurance policy]]. In her testimony, Smart acknowledged that she had what she termed an affair with the underaged boy, but claimed that the murder of her husband was solely the doing of Flynn and his friends as a reaction to her telling Flynn that she wished to end their relationship and repair her marriage. She insisted that she neither participated in the murder plot nor had any foreknowledge of it. Though Flynn claimed he had fallen in love with Smart when he first met her,<ref name=Kerr4>{{cite web|url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/family/smart/1.html |title=Sex, Lies & Murder: The Pamela Smart Case |page=4 |author=Jan Bouchard Kerr |website=crimelibrary.com |access-date=February 15, 2015 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215233410/http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/family/smart/1.html |archive-date=February 15, 2015}}</ref> Cecelia Pierce testified at trial that Smart and Flynn were originally just friends. Pierce first noticed a change about February, when Smart confessed to her that she "loved Bill." Flynn testified at trial that he was a virgin before he had sex with Pamela Smart.

After a 14-day trial that culminated on March 22, 1991, in the Rockingham County Superior Court, Smart was found [[Guilt (law)|guilty]] of being an accomplice to first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and witness tampering. The tampering stemmed from Smart's coercing Pierce to lie to authorities or not to say anything to them.<ref name="nytcon">{{cite news |title=Teacher Says Her Conviction Was a Surprise |agency=Associated Press |date=April 1, 1991 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/01/us/teacher-says-her-conviction-was-a-surprise.html |page=A11 |work=The New York Times |access-date=February 11, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403020850/http://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/01/us/teacher-says-her-conviction-was-a-surprise.html |archive-date=April 3, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> The conviction was largely the result of the testimony of her co-conspirators and secretly taped conversations in which Smart appeared to contradict her claims of having wanted to reconcile with her husband and of having no knowledge of the boys' plot.<ref name=Kerr13>{{cite web|url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/family/smart/1.html |title=Sex, Lies & Murder: The Pamela Smart Case |page=13 |author=Jan Bouchard Kerr |website=crimelibrary.com |access-date=February 15, 2015 |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215233410/http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/family/smart/1.html |archive-date=February 15, 2015}}</ref> She could have been charged with [[capital murder]], but the prosecution decided against it. Later that day, she was given a mandatory sentence of [[life in prison]] without the possibility for [[parole]].<ref name="nytcon"/>

Smart argued that the media had influenced her trial and conviction, as she explained in the 2014 [[HBO]] documentary ''[[Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart]]''.<ref name="nytcon"/>

In March 2023, the [[New Hampshire Supreme Court]] dismissed Pamela Smart's chance of freedom. This came after asking the Supreme Court to reverse Gov. [[Chris Sununu]]'s decision to deny her a commutation hearing.<ref>{{Cite web |title=New Hampshire high court rejects Pamela Smart's latest chance at freedom |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/pamela-smart-case-new-hampshire-high-court-rule/story?id=98187913 |access-date=2023-03-29 |website=ABC News |language=en}}</ref>