Free Pamela Smart

To:  Governor of The State of New Hampshire

Lawyers for Pamela Smart are running out of options in trying to get a new trial. She is the former media coordinator at Winnacunnet High School teacher who was convicted of persuading her teen lover and his friends to kill her husband in Derry 13 years ago.

Smart, who is serving a life sentence without the chance for parole for the part she played in the 1990 murder of her husband, Gregory, has been trying to gain an appeal since her 1991 conviction but has been turned down at every step of the way.

Smart’s latest blow came in April when a three-judge panel of the First U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a ruling by a federal judge in 2002, which rejected her arguments on her federal habeas petition on why she deserves an appeal.

A writ of habeas corpus is a judicial mandate to a prison official ordering that an inmate be brought to the court so it can be determined whether that person is imprisoned lawfully and whether he or she should be released from custody.

The panel, made up by Judge Juan Torruella, Judge Sandra Lynch and Judge Kermit Lipez, reaffirmed a 2002 federal judge decision by stating that several of Smart’s claims on why she deserves an appeal were forfeited by not bringing them up before and that others did not merit an appeal.

In 2002, Smart argued several points, including the fact that she deserved a new trial because her right to a fair trial was compromised by the extensive media coverage. Smart also claimed that her Eighth Amendment protection from cruel and unusual punishment was violated because her punishment was more severe than the 28-year sentence given to William Flynn, then 16, who was convicted of second degree murder for shooting Smart’s husband.

The reason Smart is now in federal court is because she has exhausted all her appeals at the state level including the State Supreme Court.

She has been in prison 14 years and that is long enough. Most of the countries in the civilized world hold a life sentence as 7 years.

Please sign our petition to ask for Pamela's sentenced to be reduced to time served or at least for Pamela to be released on parole.

Thank you.

John William Vondra

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Free Pamela Smart Petition to Governor of The State of New Hampshire was created by Miss Kitty Groups and written by John Vondra (johnnydominic@yahoo.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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