Active With The Activists: Pam Smart Supporters Appeal To Gov. Ayotte

By ARNIE ALPERT, Active with the Activists, InDepth NH

Arnie Alpert spent decades as a community organizer/educator in NH movements for social justice and peace. Officially retired since 2020, he keeps his hands (and feet) in the activist world while writing about past and present social movements.

CONCORD, NH — On August 1, the thirty-fifth anniversary of Pamela Smart’s incarceration, a group of formerly incarcerated women from New York came to the State House to ask Gov. Kelly Ayotte to visit Smart at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York, where Smart is serving a life sentence. Members of the group said that Smart is a kind and compassionate person who has helped hundreds of women improve their lives while they were serving time in prison.

“She's a helping person. She helped a lot of people accomplish their GED and especially their college degrees, and I'm one of them,” said Cheryse Murray, who drove up from New York City. “I want her to get her freedom. Thirty-five years is enough.”

But it wasn’t Smart’s freedom the group wanted to emphasize. What they stressed was a desire for Ayotte to meet her.

Smart was sentenced to life in prison as an accomplice to murder after a group of teenagers from the high school where she worked murdered her husband, Gregory Smart, in 1990. The trial was a media sensation, spinning off a novel and a Hollywood movie that made Pam Smart a household name.

She has tried three times to have her sentence reduced by the Executive Council, and tried a fourth time last spring, writing, “I ask for your mercy and for your recognition that I am not the 22-year-old who found herself involved in a terrible crime. I am a 57-year-old woman who has spent the past 35 years growing, understanding, seeking guidance from above and becoming a person who can and will be a contributing member of society for my remaining years.”

“I am what rehabilitation looks like,” Smart wrote. “I have taken responsibility for the tragic murder of my husband Gregg Smart. I have apologized to Gregg’s family and my own for the life taken and for my life denied to my parents and family for all these long years.”

Gov. Ayotte refused to put Smart’s request on the Council agenda. “People who commit violent crimes must be held accountable to the law. I take very seriously the action of granting a pardon hearing and believe this process should only be used in exceptional circumstances. Having reviewed this case, I have decided it is not deserving of a hearing before the Executive Council,” Ayotte said in a press release.

Above, Pam Smart's supporters gathered Friday at the State House in Concord. ARNIE ALPERT photo

The State House visit was organized by Sammie and Jules Werkheiser, both of whom were imprisoned on child abuse charges but who were later cleared and released. Both of them met Smart in prison.

“What I can tell you about Pam is she's very loving,” said Jules. “She's always thinking of others and how she can help. And I have sat and stood next to Pamela in church. We have prayed together, we have cried together, we have laughed together. She is a deep feeling human being and a deeply caring individual. And what I would just ask from the governor is to take the time to get to know that person,” Jules said.

Chiwana Wright said, “She helped so many people in prison,” for example helping women complete their GEDs. Wright, who finished her own term of imprisonment ten years ago, said she now works for the city of New York and is the proud mom of a newly minted police officer. “Forgiveness is the first thing they teach you in church,” she said. “Everybody deserves a chance.”

Before visiting the governor’s office, the group of seven women rallied by the State House steps, with Smart on the phone. “I know that a lot of people believe that I don't deserve anything, that I don't deserve any compassion, and I understand why people feel that way,” Smart said. “But it's like I'm always, always, holding space in my heart and my mind for Gregg and his family and everyone who has suffered as everything happened. At the same time. I believe that real healing only takes place when there's forgiveness and mercy and compassion.”

According to press reports, Smart first acknowledged responsibility for her husband’s murder in a 2024 videotaped statement. At the time, Val Fryatt, a cousin of Gregory Smart, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that her statement fell short, and that she said she accepted full responsibility "without admitting the facts around what made her 'fully responsible.'"

All of the men involved in the murder of Gregory Smart have been released from prison.

“We know that today, on Friday, August 1, it marks thirty-five years. Not days, not weeks, not months, but 35 years,” said Sammie Werkheiser, from the steps. “You see a few people here, but each one of us represents one thousand individuals who were incarcerated with Pamela who do not have the ability to be here today, but who love her, who care about her.”

“Pamela Smart deserves mercy,” Sammie chanted.

In call-and-response style, the other women repeated, “Mercy.”

“Pamela smart deserves freedom.”

“Freedom.”

“Pamela smart deserves forgiveness.”

“Forgiveness.”

While Sammie was speaking, an unidentified man approached the group and said, “People who went to school with her, they’re pretty happy with where she is right now.” As four of the women approached him to argue their case, Sammie began a chant, “Pamela Smart for freedom!” After a few minutes, the man left, saying he preferred not to give his name.

Of the Smart supporters, Stella De Santis was the only one who had not been incarcerated. The Pennsylvania resident said she watched the Smart trial on TV and thought Smart had been treated unfairly by the judge and the news media. “I just thought they were exploiting her, and it made me sad.”

Years later, De Santis began corresponding with Smart and about fourteen years ago began regular visits with Smart at the Bedford Hills prison. De Santis said Smart’s father had recently died and that her friend should be freed and allowed to be with her mother.

Inside the governor’s office, Sammie asked to speak to a staffer from the Governor’s Office of Citizen Services with whom she had exchanged several phone calls and a series of emails. The receptionist said the woman was unavailable. While they waited to see if another member of Ayotte’s staff might meet with them, Sammie got Smart back on the phone.

“My mom needs me home,” Smart said. “Right now, out of all of the children in my family, I was closest to my father, and this is just really hard. And I just feel like, you know, how much punishment is going to be enough?”

“Your friends, your friends are here for you. Your friends are here for you,” Sammie responded.

A few minutes later, John Callahan, a member of the governor’s staff, came into the reception area with a pad in his hand. As Callahan jotted down notes, Sammie repeated the group’s request. “We’re asking the governor to simply just meet with Pamela Smart. We feel it's reasonable for her to be able to tell her constituents that she knows this human being for whom she holds the keys of freedom.“

Others added their testimony about Smart. “Being incarcerated has made her a better, not a bitter person,” offered Denise Solla, who told Callahan she had spent 30 years in prison.

“Are you going to tell the governor all this?” De Santis asked.

Callahan said he would.

Looking him squarely in the eye and slowly approaching Callahan, Sammie went on. “If thirty-five years ago you weren't born that means when you learned to walk, Pamela Smart was in prison. When you learned to brush your teeth. Pamela Smart was in prison. When you learned to ride your bike. Pamela Smart was in prison. When you had your first kiss. Pamela Smart was in prison. When you graduated high school, Pamela Smart was in prison. When you went to college, Pamela Smart was in prison. When you've got this job that you're standing before me, where you are the mover and the shaker, you are the note taker of the freedom holder. Pamela Smart is in prison.”

“We ask the good governor from the state of New Hampshire, we ask that ‘Live Free or Die’ is a real thing. This human being lost her father, and we're asking for the governor to step in and be reasonable.”

“Go meet Pam,” she said, before concluding the meeting with a short prayer and leading the group back to the hallway.

When the group returned to the State House steps, they were joined by several other Smart supporters who had arrived too late for the meeting. Jazzy Mason said she had driven up from the Bronx to represent Smart. “She definitely needs to be out,” she said. “She's helped so many people.”

Sammie Werkheiser said she has started a Facebook page, “Pamela Smart’s Definitive Freedom.” The State House visit was the first of many, she said. “Trust and believe that we’ll be coming back.”

This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.