Pamela Smart denied hearing in husband's death

May 15, 2019 12:00 am • Last Updated: May 15, 2019 12:12 pm

FILE - In this 2010 file image from video courtesy of WMUR television of Manchester, N.H., Pamela Smart is shown during an interview at the corrections facility in Bedford Hills, N.Y. Smart is again asking for a chance at freedom after she was sentenced to life in prison without parole for recruiting her teenage lover William "Billy" Flynn to kill her husband Gregg Smart in 1990 in Derry, N.H. A council meets Wednesday, May 15, 2019, to consider her appeal for a hearing for parole consideration or reduced sentence. A similar request was denied nearly 14 years earlier. (WMUR Television via AP, File)

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Pamela Smart has again been denied a chance at freedom nearly three decades after she was sentenced to life in prison without parole for recruiting her teenage lover to kill her husband in New Hampshire.

Smart was 22 and working as a high school media coordinator when she was accused of plotting with student William Flynn to murder her husband in 1990. She's now 51. The story inspired the 1995 Nicole Kidman movie "To Die For."

Smart had sought a sentence reduction hearing before a state council. The council, which declined a similar request 14 years ago, voted 4-0 Wednesday to deny a hearing. One member abstained.

Her appeal options are now exhausted.

Smart denied knowledge of the plot. Flynn and three other youths cooperated with prosecutors and have since been released from prison.

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