The Eye of the Camera and Blind Justice: The Pamela Smart Trial
The star of the upcoming HBO documentary on the sensational Pamela Smart trial is a hand-held mini-cassette recorder sitting on an empty desk. The little device is a substitute for Juror 13 – who held out for part of the deliberations for acquittal – since, to this day, she prefers to remain anonymous. The program plays part of her audio diary made during the 14-day trial in 1991.
Her fascinating words, along with footage of a lot of bad '80s haircuts, are part of the revisitation of the media onslaught that surrounded the case that began with the grisly murder of Gregory Smart in New Hampshire in 1990.
Recounting events during and after the Smart trial – the first ever televised nationally, gavel-to-gavel – Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart also follows the Smart trial as one of the early instances of reality TV. It airs Monday at 9:00 p.m. ET on HBO.
For those who may or may not recall, Pam Smart was first seen in the media as the grieving widow of her husband of just one year who had been shot in the head after surprising presumed burglars at their condo. Police shortly unraveled her affair with Billy Flynn, a student enrolled at the high school where she worked. Flynn was soon arrested along with two of his pals, petty criminals from the tougher side of town, as the triggermen. Soon after, Smart was charged as an accomplice and mastermind of the scheme (although not at the condo at the time of the murder, she was accused of making Flynn do the murder if he wanted to stay her lover).
Up to that point, the press had painted Smart – a pretty, stylish, 22-year-old – as a victim. Quickly, the New Hampshire locals, asked in man-on-the-street interviews, began describing a scheming ice princess, a guilty, cold-hearted sexual manipulator.
Smart was soon the daily subject of tabloid shows like Inside Edition and talk shows like Geraldo and Donahue. Video from these and other shows form the documentary’s main thesis: the television pressure cooker having essentially convicted Smart before she ever went to trial and assisted the outcome.
There are plenty of historical clips here, and new interviews with reporters and writers who covered the case. They recount how hundreds of potential jurors were released because of their exposure to the coverage, and how the eventual jurors – not sequestered during the 14-day trial – were free to go home and watch the news after each day’s proceedings.
Director Jeremiah Zagar paints a palpable picture of the media storm at the time, along with extensive audio clips from Juror 13’s diary of the trial – a televised event that got higher ratings than afternoon network soap operas. Juror 13 expresses sobering displeasure with Smart’s conviction in the press at the time, and anguishes over convicting Smart solely on the basis of statements she made to an informant recorded by police wiretap.
Smart, maintaining her innocence after almost 25 years in prison, is interviewed several times for the documentary. There are compelling ideas here about television perception becoming public reality and, more disturbingly, how Flynn and the others received reduced second-degree murder charges in exchange for testimony against Smart. They will be eligible for parole next year, while Smart, who appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, is still serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
None of Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart changes the fact that Gregory Smart is still dead nearly 25 years later and isn’t coming back. But the manner in which Pam Smart was convicted for the crime does deserve its moment, along with Juror 13’s tape recorder, spotlighting why television, when it comes to serving justice, should dedicate itself more to the principles of journalism than the pursuit of ratings.