WHEN DID YOU FIRST MEET PAMELA SMART AND WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST IMPRESSION?
I met Pamela Smart in 1993 at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York. It was during her first year of incarceration in a New York State prison. She was chairing a conference for the Bedford Hills chapter of NOW (National Organization for Women), and I was an invited speaker. My topic was Clemency. At the time, I was a faculty member at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a frequent visitor to the prison and well known to a number of inmates. I assume she got my name from one of them.
From the moment she spoke at the microphone, I was impressed by her intelligence and organizational ability, and with the Conference itself. It was a complex event that encompassed a daylong menu of activities, with a large audience of inmates, guards and staff in attendance. I thought Pamela handled her duties with remarkable poise and ease. Even though it was her first year at Bedford, she had already assumed a constructive role at the facility, and that in itself, was interesting and unusual.
HOW HAS SHE GROWN SINCE THE FIRST TIME YOU MET HER?
Pamela Smart’s growth and intellectual development since I first met her in 1993 has been remarkable. She successfully completed two Masters Degrees--one in 2001 in Law from the Southern California University for Professional Studies; another in 2003 in English Literature from Mercy College. Both were earned with highest honors (Summa Cum Laude and Valedictorian) and a perfect average; none were at taxpayer’s expense, but privately funded by donations and/or private scholarships.
I served as her Academic Mentor for both degrees. Pamela Smart is now seeking an additional graduate degree in Pastoral Counseling. These educational attainments have been used for the betterment of other inmates whom she has counseled, mentored, tutored and taught in both formal and informal settings.
It is difficult to imagine that someone in her situation, someone who cannot imagine or count on a future, is still striving for personal improvement and growth at a level that is rarely attained by most people on the outside who have bright and unlimited prospects. In my view, this speaks to will and character, someone motivated to achieve and overcome, despite the obvious handicaps of prison life, in order to help other inmates further their education and improve the quality of their lives.
HOW OFTEN DO YOU SPEAK WITH HER?
My contact with Pamela Smart is quite constant in one form or another. When I am in New York, I try to visit her every other week. In addition, she phones and writes me regularly and frequently. I am also in touch with her family by phone, email and in person. Email exchanges, especially with her mother, can be as often as several times a day.
There are other collateral people in her life with whom I am in touch on her behalf, including lawyers, web site technicians (www.pamelasmart.net), media, politicians, agency bureaucrats, former inmates and friends, extended family, advocacy groups, DOC (Department of Corrections) employees, prison personnel, and the general public.
HOW DOES SHE SPEND HER TIME?
Pamela spends her time studying, writing, praying, reading, counseling other inmates, going to church, Praise Dancing, playing softball (in good weather), working at prison assignments and programs, teaching and tutoring, helping the emotionally impaired with hygiene and adjustment issues.
WHAT IS THE LATEST ON HER CASE?
Pamela Smart has no appeals left. Unless new evidence turns up, or one of the key witnesses against her recants their testimony, she will serve out her sentence--which would be imprisonment for the rest of her natural life.
WHY DO YOU STAND BY PAMELA SMART'S CLAIM OF INNOCENCE?
It has not been a popular task, standing by Pamela’s assertions of innocence. The general view is that she is guilty, that she has committed, not just a crime--but a sin. The public is angry at her in a way that appears quite personal and excessive, even to this day. To some extent, those attitudes have been media fueled because journalists and broadcasters do not let the story die; they continue to be fascinated by the case and to stereotype her. Material facts are continuously misstated and repeated. Films, documentaries and articles abound, the vast majority of them negative.
This harshness towards Pamela, extends to her family, supporters and advocates. Believing in Pamela Smart and publicly standing up for her innocence has complicated my life immeasurably.
It’s true that she did engage in an inappropriate relationship with a young man, something that I do not condone or accept; nor does Pamela Smart. In fact, no one judges her on this point more harshly-- or regrets it more deeply--than she herself.
However, I do not believe she had any role, directly or indirectly in the murder of her husband, Gregg. There are many reasons for this, and it would take me a very long time to list all of them.
What I do believe is that Bill Flynn killed Gregg Smart in order to eliminate his romantic rival so he could have Pamela to himself. She would not leave her husband and had broken up with him. When Flynn and his cohorts were caught, they bargained with the prosecutors to receive reduced sentences by naming Pamela as the prime mover and chief architect of the crime. They benefited enormously from this deal.
Two of the boys are already out of prison and two will be getting out. Pamela Smart, on the other hand, will never see freedom. The disparity of their respective sentences, treatment and fate is among the many indices of injustice permeating this case.
Another is sexism, but that too, is a long and complicated story.
Why do I believe she is innocent? In the simplest terms, Pamela Smart had no motive for the crime. She and her husband had no children. Hence, there were no custody issues. (Some claimed, absurdly, that she wanted custody of her dog, Halen, which was why she had Gregg murdered). It was 1990, not 1890, and she could readily have gotten a divorce, even an annulment if she so desired. They did not own their condominium, but rented it. Accordingly, there was no issue of property. Gregg had a truck; Pamela had a car. She had a profession and a college degree. Gregg had a high school diploma and had just begun working with his father selling insurance for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.
There were many perceived irregularities in the trial, including, among other things, juror misconduct, improper ex parte communications by the judge, defendants who watched each other testify on television prior to giving their own testimony, and a transcript of a wire worn by a key prosecution witness which was never authenticated. An independent lab report later noted a number of “anomalies” in the tape “which cast serious doubt on the authenticity of the original recordings.” This, together with the self-serving testimony of the boys who did the actual killing and who plea bargained their way to lighter sentences by fingering Pamela Smart as the instigator in the murder, comprised the entirety of the case against her.
But in the end, I am persuaded by my direct experiences with this woman and my personal assessment of her character, reinforced over a very long period of time, i.e., nearly two decades. I simply do not believe that she is capable of such a heinous crime. Firsthand, I have observed her sharing or giving away her worldly goods to those less fortunate, seen her abhorrence of cruelty and violence, witnessed her personal courage and honesty in standing up for others under dangerous and inhospitable conditions.
I am not romantic about women in prison, as many people are. Crimes of violence appall and disgust me, and it’s my view that many who are incarcerated are exactly where they should be. But Pamela Smart is not one of them.
WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN YOU HEARD BILLY FLYNN WAS ASKING A JUDGE TO BE RELEASED?
My reaction to Billy Flynn’s request for a further sentence reduction, which was granted when the judge chipped off another three years from his original sentence, is to be found in the statement I issued on behalf of Pamela Smart and her family:
“Bill Flynn has more to answer for than the sin and crime of killing Gregg Smart. He also took Pamela Smart’s life. The guilt and shame he says he feels, the huge weight strapped permanently across his shoulders, refers to two people, not one. He murdered Gregg with a gun and Pamela with perjured testimony. Both weapons were effective; both weapons were lethal.
If Flynn has truly transformed himself into a man of character and a fully rehabilitated adult, as he says he has—and as we hope he has—then he should finally set the record straight and tell the complete truth about Pamela Smart’s innocence and how she was used as a pawn to get a reduced sentence for himself and his cohorts.”
Personally, I found it intriguing to contrast Flynn’s behavior on the stand during the original trial and during this hearing. One was a duplicate of the other, a sort of split screen despite the intervening 17 years, as he kept reaching for tissues and wiping his eyes. It was as if he had found a winning formula for moving the judiciary and the public. And I guess he has.
Equally disturbing and bizarre was Flynn’s claim that he was taking “full responsibility” for killing Gregg Smart, then used the entirety of his statement to blame everything he did on Pamela Smart.
AND FINALLY, WHAT DO YOU WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT PAMELA SMART?
What I want people to know about Pamela Smart is this: In no way, does she resemble the woman that is portrayed in the media. And, more importantly, she is innocent.
It is my hope that the national conversation about Pamela Smart will one day not be so one-sided and that the real facts of Gregg Smart’s terrible murder and Pamela Smart’s unfair conviction be revisited and finally redressed.
For further information, the official website for Pamela Smart is www.pamelasmart.net.
Pamela's graduation photo, June 2003 at Bedford Hills Commencement ceremony
Courtesy: Dr. Eleanor Pam
John and Linda Wojas (parents), Dr. Eleanor Pam and Pamela Smart.
Courtesy: Dr. Eleanor Pam
In March 1991, Pamela Smart received a life sentence for conspiring to kill her husband with her 15-year-old lover, William Flynn. Family spokesperson and an expert on women and violence, Dr. Eleanor Pam, speaks with her regularly and provided Crimejunkies with an update...
