1990
Newlywed Pam Smart, then a 22-year-old media coordinator at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, New Hampshire, plots with her teenage students to have her husband, Gregg Smart, murdered. She has an affair with a student, William “Billy” Flynn of Seabrook, then 15, who shoots Gregg Smart in their Derry condominium.
1991
Pam Smart is convicted as an accomplice to first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole after a trial in Exeter, New Hampshire. The case gained international attention and was one of America’s first major cases involving a sexual affair between a school staff member and student. Flynn is later convicted of second-degree murder.
1992
Notable author Joyce Maynard writes the novel “To Die For” drawing from the Smart case.
1994
Pam Smart is transferred to Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York to serve her life sentence.
1995
“To Die For” inspires a film of the same name, starring Nicole Kidman and Joaquin Phoenix.
2005
Pam Smart is denied her first request at a commutation hearing that year.
2010
In interviews, Smart says she never wanted Gregg killed and never asked anyone to do it.
2015
Flynn is freed after serving a 25-year prison sentence.
2019
N.H. Governor’s Council votes 4-0 against Smart’s request for a commutation hearing.
2022
Smart appeals to N.H. Supreme Court, which dismisses her petition a year later.
2024
In a video sent to WMUR TV, for the first time at age 56, Smart says she accepts responsibility for Gregg’s murder and asks to have an “honest conversation” with Gov. Chris Sununu and the Executive Council.