All articles tagged with #new hampshire supreme court
The New Hampshire Supreme Court overturned Adam Montgomery’s 2024 murder conviction for the death of his 5-year-old daughter Harmony, ruling that consolidating the murder and assault charges in a single trial violated his right to a fair trial; while the related assault and other convictions remain, prosecutors say they will pursue a retrial on the murder charge.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court reversed Adam Montgomery’s second-degree murder conviction in Harmony Montgomery’s death, ruling the trial improperly joined the murder charge with the separate assault charge and highlighting stronger evidence for the July 2019 assault than for the December 2019 murder. The court left intact the other convictions (assault, abuse of a corpse, falsifying physical evidence, witness tampering), and Montgomery will remain imprisoned for those convictions. A parallel wrongful-death suit by Harmony’s mother was also decided in her favor earlier this week.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court has rejected Pamela Smart's latest challenge to her life sentence in prison. Smart was convicted in 1991 for convincing her teenage lover to kill her husband. She asked the state's highest court last year to reverse Governor Chris Sununu's decision to deny her a commutation hearing. The court ruled that it does not have oversight power to direct the governor and his executive council to reconsider Smart's request for a sentence reduction. Smart's only chance at release is if the New Hampshire executive branch grants her a reduction of sentence or a commutation.