Pamela Smart, the New Hampshire high school teacher who persuaded a student lover to kill her husband, was convicted in in a trial that set a standard for modern media frenzy. Today, Smart is the only person serving time in the New York prison system for an offense committed in another state. She has been living in virtual anonymity at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in Westchester since But the assault has pushed the poised Smart into the spotlight and courtroom again.
Smart, 30, pressed criminal charges against the inmates who allegedly punched her in the face, breaking her nose and her left eye socket. The trial could start this week in the county courthouse in White Plains. Yet Smart is set to testify against Mona Graves, who made murder headlines of her own a decade ago in Queens, and another inmate.
They are charged with second-degree assault in the attack. A former cheerleader and honor student who loved heavy metal music and wanted desperately to be a TV news star, Smart was married to a handsome, hardworking insurance agent. There she befriended William Flynn, then 15, and his circle of friends, none of them popular students. Smart had an affair with Flynn and convinced him to kill her husband to prevent her from losing her condo, furniture and beloved Shih-Tzu dog in a divorce.
Flynn pulled the trigger. He confessed, gave up Smart and is serving 28 years for second-degree murder. Smart dressed in spike heels and bright, camera-friendly colors at her trial, which was televised. Because she appeared emotionless, she was dubbed Ice Princess. On her conviction in of being an accomplice to first-degree murder, conspiracy to murder and witness tampering, the judge ordered her behind bars forever. She was 23 years old. Meanwhile, Smart has waged a relentless fight for freedom and inspired an almost cultlike following, including an Internet fan club.
She is in maximum security at Bedford Hills, one of women housed in a collection of old and new buildings surrounded by barbed wire, set amid rolling hills near Interstate , not far from huge estates and wooded horse trails. In July , Smart received a scholarship from the University of Alabama to study criminal justice through a correspondence course. He saw his daughter in late October. We bring food and cook.
