If Pam Smart's case was like any usual crime story, it would begin with the conspiracy, climax with the murder, and conclude with her conviction. Fifteen years after she was found guilty, the story still continues as she goes through a slew of high profile lawyers and strategies in her appeals to go free.

The media was still overwhelmingly interested in her case when her original trial lawyers, Mark Sisti and Paul Twomey of Chichester, N.H. filed her immediate appeal for a re-trial on June 5, 1991, after being sentenced on her final convictions.

The Beginning of the High Profile Attorneys

According to a June 10, 1991 New Hampshire Union Leader article there was much criticism by New Hampshire attorneys when Smart retained high profile Boston attorney J. Albert Johnson on June 6, 1991, instead of continuing with Sisti and Twomey, two highly respected lawyers.

Among Johnson's previous clients were Patricia Hearst and the defendants of the Mai Lai massacre in Vietnam. Ironically enough, he is also a member of the board for Papa Gino's, the pizza chain key witness Cecelia Pierce worked for at the time of the murder.

Most of the criticism laid in the fact that Smart was trading up for someone with more celebrity.

"Lawyers were selected on their expertise in certain areas," said Linda Wojas, Pam Smart's mother.

Steven MacAuliffe, the New Hampshire Bar Association president-elect at the time, told the Union Leader in 1991, "People make a mistake when they think the name or fame or celebrity of someone will affect the outcome of an appeal."

What many people who weren't immediately involved in Smart's re-trial appeal didn't know is that Johnson had taken the case pro-bono, and was the only lawyer to do so in her entire appeals process, according to a prison interview with Smart on Oct. 21, 2005.

At the time, Smart said she had been referred to Johnson, and turned down an offer from famed attorney Alan Dershowitz to have him and his Harvard Law students handle her re-trial appeal for $50,000. Smart said if Dershowitz won the appeal, it would have cost her an additional $100,000 for her new trial. Dershowitz wasn't available for comment, but he told media at the time that he was too busy with other clients to take on Smart's case.

Sisti Still in the Game

Sisti said that he didn't know why such criticism came up after Smart's decision to switch counsel, because it is common for appeals.

"It happens all the time. It is certainly the client's decision and I wish them the best luck possible," Sisti told the Union Leader.

"We are sure he will serve Pamela's interests admirably well," Paul Twomey told the (North Andover, Mass.) Eagle-Tribune.

Sisti has remained involved with all of Smart's appeals and other legal work ever since he was involved with her trial, often by filing paperwork for out-of-state attorneys that have taken up Smart's appeals, such as Greg Adamski out of Chicago and Jay Acton from New York City.

According to a telephone interview with Sisti, Twomey has "geared down" his legal duties, often being involved with New Hampshire Democrats and doing occasional misdemeanor work out of Merrimack, N.H.

Over the course of Smart's re-trial appeal in August 1991, Johnson's main argument was excessive pre-trial publicity that tainted the non-sequestered jury.

"Media doesn't have anything to do with it, it's a dead horse. Enough is enough," said Sisti about Johnson's appeal arguments. "[The focus on publicity] was exactly the problem with Johnson's appeal. There are so many other good issues."

Sisti said the media and its "bizarre, circus-like" environment was an important role.

"It was affecting witnesses. It was affecting my client and may have affected the jury," said Sisti. "It was so bad at one point in time, Pam was leaving the courthouse escorted by the sheriff's deputies."

However, Sisti said Smart's most important appeals issue was how Judge Douglas Gray wouldn't let the defense re-call Bill Flynn to the stand over a letter sent to inmate Douglas Abrahams at the Rockingham County Jail.

"We intercepted communication from another inmate that he lied under oath, he acted on the stand," said Sisti of the document's contents.

In appeals' documents obtained by the Equinox, defendant Vance Lattime Jr. wrote the following to Abrahams, who had been transferred to Concord State Prison. In it, he attempted to explain why he was testifying against Smart.

"When we were arrested as you know we were kids which meant the state had to spend over six months to certify us. While Pam was an adult so she could just get a trial date. Which means she could go to trail (sic) long befor (sic) us leaving her the option that if she was found guilty to testify against us for a lesser charge… What I'm trying to say is we were (expletive). We had no choice her or us."

In a classic sense, Smart's lover, Bill Flynn, was made an offer he couldn't refuse by the New Hampshire Attorney General's office. To save himself, he wrote he had to testify against Smart. In an intercepted letter also written to Abrahams, Flynn expressed both regrets and fear.

"Pame's (sic) lawyers have filed a motion not to let us testify. I pray to God they get it. I hate myself for haveing (sic) to do this but I just don't have a choice. I'll never forget the day they told me she said she'd testify against us if she got convicted. I (expletive) cried that night. The attorney Generals (sic) always ask me if I still have feelings for Pame and I can't answer. I know I'm stupid if I do but I don't know. I guess I'm all (expletive) up. There (sic) afraid I'll get on the stand and say she's innocent. I dred (sic) that day more than anything," wrote Flynn in January 1991 to Abrahams.

Later in another intercepted letter to Abrahams, Flynn wrote about his decision to plead guilty.