HAMPTON — The state of New York is off the hook in the beating of Pamela Smart in the Bedford Hills women's prison.

A judge ruled last week that the only people responsible for the beating were the inmates who attacked her.

Smart, who is serving a life sentence for persuading her then teenage lover to kill her husband in 1990, filed a suit against the state claiming negligence on behalf of prison officials led to her beating. Smart said she was attacked by two woman in October 1996.

In his decision, State Court of Claims Judge Stephen Mignano noted Smart "regularly refused to be placed in protective custody because inmates in PC were perceived as weak and regularly victimized."