Pamela Smart, serving life, seeks new trial as New Hampshire judge weighs her latest petition

CONCORD, N.H. —

Pamela Smart is expected to appear virtually in court on Monday as her legal team argues specific evidence presented during her trial led the jury to a biased decision.

Smart is serving life in prison for orchestrating the murder of her husband by her teenage student in 1990.

Smart’s trial was one of the first in the nation to be broadcast live on television from start to finish. She was a 22-year-old high school media coordinator when she began an affair with a 15-year-old boy who later fatally shot her husband, Gregory Smart, in Derry, New Hampshire.

The shooter was freed in 2015 after serving a 25-year sentence. Though Smart denied knowledge of the plot, she was convicted of being an accomplice to first-degree murder and other crimes and was sentenced to life without parole.

Her petition for habeas corpus relief was filed in January. It seeks to overturn her conviction over what her lawyers claim were several constitutional violations.

Her appeal claims jury bias after jurors were given transcripts of audio recordings while those recordings were played in court. Her attorneys argue the prosecution’s decision to use those transcripts as evidence steered the jury toward a biased conclusion.

A spokesperson for Pamela Smart’s family says they hope the court grants her an official hearing, arguing New Hampshire courts have not fully considered her claims.

One law professor at the University of New Hampshire says Smart’s appeal faces long odds but believes the legitimacy of the transcripts is an issue the court could consider.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.