The real woman who inspired Nicole Kidman's hit movie 'To Die For' has finally taken full responsibility for her husband's death, 34 years after he was murdered.
Pamela Smart, who is serving a life sentence for conspiring with her teenage lover to murder her husband in 1990, has finally accepted full responsibility for his death. This admission came in a videotaped statement released on Tuesday as part of her latest bid for a sentence reduction.
Smart, now 56, was a 22-year-old high school media coordinator when she began an illicit affair with a 15-year-old student who later shot and killed her husband, Gregory Smart, in Derry, New Hampshire. The young shooter was released in 2015 after serving a 25-year sentence.
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Pamela Smart during her murder conspiracy trial in 1991 (AP1991)Despite Pamela Smart's denial of any knowledge of the murder plot, she was found guilty of being an accomplice to first-degree murder among other crimes and was sentenced to life without parole. Her trial was one of the first full televised murder trials, which introduced a national audience to the young defendant and even younger co-conspirators.
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The trial inspired Joyce Maynard's 1992 book and the 1995 film adaptation 'To Die For', based on a book by the same name, starring Nicole Kidman and Joaquin Phoenix, along with a television series starring Helen Hunt. Smart served as the inspiration for Kidman's breakout role as a sociopathic local weathergirl aiming for stardom akin to Barabara Walters, with the two even looking eerily similar in appearance.
Pamela Smart exits a Rockingham County courtroom after the second day of testimony in her own defence (Bettmann Archive)
Nicole Kidman in 'To Die For' where viewers think she appeared eerily similar to Smart (Columbia Pictures)Having spent nearly 34 years behind bars, Smart revealed in the videotaped statement that she started to "dig deeper into my own responsibility" through her involvement in a writing group. She said the group "encouraged us to go beyond and to spaces that we didn't want to be in."
"For me, that was really hard, because going into those places, in those spaces is where I found myself responsible for something I desperately didn't want to be responsible for, my husband's murder," she confessed, her voice trembling. "I had to acknowledge for the first time in my own mind and my own heart how responsible I was, because I had deflected blame all the time, I think, almost as if it was a coping mechanism, because the truth of being so responsible was very difficult for me."
She requested an "honest conversation" with New Hampshire's five-member Executive Council, which approves state contracts and appointees to the courts and state agencies, as well as with Gov. Chris Sununu. Smart has exhausted all of her judicial appeal options and must now go through the council for a sentence change. The council rejected her latest request, her third, in 2022 and Smart appealed to the state Supreme Court, which dismissed her petition last year.
Pamela Smart during an interview at the corrections facility in Bedford Hills, NY, in 2010 (WMUR Television)Val Fryatt, a cousin of Gregory Smart, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Smart "danced around it" and accepted full responsibility "without admitting the facts around what made her 'fully responsible.'." Fryatt pointed out that Smart didn't mention her cousin's name in the video, "not even once."
"New Hampshire's process for commutation or pardon requests is fair and thorough," stated Sununu's office. "Pamela Smart will be given the same opportunity to petition the Council for a hearing as any other individual."
"I will look into it, it's not on my radar screen as of yet," Councilor Joseph Kenney said via email. Smart is currently serving her sentence at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester County, New York. During her time behind bars, she has achieved a doctorate in ministry and three master's degrees.
Smart's trial was one of the first fully televised murder trials in the US (Bettmann Archive)Additionally, she has tutored fellow inmates, been ordained as a minister, and participated in an inmate liaison committee. Expressing remorse for her actions, she claims to have been rehabilitated.
"I made excuses, dismissed my own involvement, and blamed everyone else but myself," Smart confessed in her letter to Sununu. She admitted that despite not being present at the murder scene or pulling the trigger, she had wrongly absolved herself of responsibility, stating she "became comfortable in my warped logic."
She further added, "I am the one to blame for his absence from this world." Mark Sisti, Smart's long-standing lawyer, revealed that the petition was submitted last week.
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Joaquin Phoenix starred as Jimmy Emmett, based on Billy Flynn (Columbia Pictures)"We're trying to impress upon the governor and council that we believe this is the time for them to actually listen to her," he stated. "If they have any questions, she's more than happy to answer any of the questions that they may have."
Her petition included nearly 30 letters of support, many of which were from individuals within the corrections system. "She is the true definition of a rehabilitated, improved and refined human being," Edward Gibbs, a member of the York State Assembly, penned in his letter, dated March 14.
The trial grabbed headlines nationwide, becoming one of the first major US cases to delve into a sexual relationship between a school staff member and a student. The perpetrator, William Flynn, along with three other teenagers, collaborated with the authorities and have all been released since. Flynn testified that Smart had coerced him into murdering her husband by claiming she would lose everything in a divorce and threatening to end their affair if he refused.
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