Posted by I don’t remember paying much attention at the time and I didn’t like the movie (based on the novel) much.
The case has received publicity recently because (some) of the murderers are being set free.
They’re all stupid, but Pam Smart is dumber than them all. The bookless professor (apparently they, the books, were confiscated by the prison) in the documentary said she’s super-smart. She did have a good job and she sure has a lot of energy. She too was very young when it happened (22, and close to 23). She had been married one year.
‘Poor guy’ is not funny. Why four fifteen year-olds would kill for her I just don’t know. Helen Hunt was attractive in those days… I mean I wouldn’t want to marry her, not then or now. But if I was fifteen? Well, chances are I would still have the good sense to avoid twenty years in prison.
The whole crowd is whacked, her, the four boys, and that Cecilia chick.
There is something annoying about this woman, still, even today. Just being annoying is not a crime. Again, none of them are too bright—you can’t kill someone in your home town, among people you know, in a premeditated fashion, and not expect to be found. You’re going to crack. At least run to Mexico, which a 15 year-old probably couldn’t do. And she’s going to go right back to work at the school? Her husband had a one-night affair. It was her own living room, and apparently they almost went through with it a few weeks before too. It does seem like she either planted the seed or was heavily involved in premeditated murder.
I think the D. A. had it right when he said she believes she is innocent and that will not change.
The unique things about this case are that it was heavily publicized and Pam Smart is viewed in a role model or educator or at least adult way. Even though she was only in her early twenties, the boys were only fifteen. They are not exactly choirboys, and that’s another thing, she had to have known that. Manipulating yourself into her bed is about as unusual as… doing lines before your testimony to make it more emotional.
Like the Roman Polanski case, the judge seemed to like the attention and allowed the show. The jury should have been sequestered. The prosecutor was overzealous (and right). The whole state can… I’m not moving to New Hampshire.