The Media's Impact on the Perception of Pamela Smart's Murder

Brief Summary of CaseHow the Media May Have Impacted the Public's Perception On May 1st, 1990, in Derry, New Hampshire, teenagers BillyFlynn, Patrick Randall, Raymond Fowler, and Vance "J.R."Lattime, Jr. broke into the condominium owned by Gregg andPamela Smart. During this time, Flynn and Randall killed Greggand staged the home to appear as if a burglary had taken place.Upon conducting an initial investigation, law enforcementofficials discovered that Pamela Smart, an instructor at the localhigh school, was having an affair with Flynn and hired him tokill her husband. Pamela was soon arrested and charged withbeing an accomplice to first-degree murder (Downey, 2022).During her trial, media outlets began painting Pamela asremorseless and referred to her as an "ice princess". As a result,her defense team filed for a change of venue, which wasultimately denied (Roig-Franzia, 2019). Pamela was eventuallyconvicted of her change and was sentenced to life in prisonwithout the possibility of parole. Over the next few decades, her team petitioned the court on three separate occasions for aDue to Pamela's case being highly publicized, it became the first murder trial to be broadcasted on national television. As such, the media's interference became a major issue for ensuring a fair trial for the defendant. From the beginning to end of her trial, all members of the court (i.e., judge, prosecutor, jurors, etc.) held a bias against Pamela. During this time, the media portrayed her as an "ice princess" and unemotional to her husband's death. In actuality, Smart was trying to remain strong from the stress and pressure from the trial (Roig-Franzia, 2019). After the trial concluded, and Pamela was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, numerous television specials and movies were created to showcase her story (Voeglein, 2021). However, when Pamela attempted to rebuke the information in those specials as false and misleading, this solidified the audience's view that she was guilty.