Susan Smith, mother jailed for killing her sons in 1994, faces South Carolina Parole Board after 30 years behind bars
Susan Smith has spent three decades behind bars for the murder of her two young sons, Michael and Alexander, in 1994.
On November 3, 1994, David Smith and his wife Susan appeared on national television to plead for the return of their missing sons.
Three-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander had been missing for nine days.
The mother told police she had been carjacked by a black man, who drove away with the boys still in the car.
Holding her hand and looking down the lens, David Smith told America: "It's very painful to know that anyone would think that either of us had anything to do with this abduction of our children.
"But me and my wife know the truth."
Hours later, his wife would confess to killing both boys.
Now, 30 years after that confession, her former husband has joined the fight to keep her behind bars.
The 'carjacker', the missing boys, and Susan Smith's confession
The story Susan Smith presented to police and the world in 1994 was every parent's worst nightmare.
Michael and Alexander were strapped into their car seats for a late-night drive on October 25.
As their then-23-year-old mother stopped at a red light on an isolated road, a man yanked open the front passenger door and climbed in.
"Shut up and drive or I'll kill you," he told her before ordering her to drive about 16 kilometres.
He told her to get out. She begged him to let her take the children.
"I don't have time. I'll take care of them," he said.
Standing in the middle of the road in Monarch Mill, just a few minutes' drive from the family home in Union, she screamed at the disappearing car.
Except, it would later be revealed that this did not happen.
The carjacker she described — young, black, wearing dark clothes and close to six feet tall — did not exist.
In the days after, volunteers combed the area for any sign of the boys, residents tied yellow ribbons to their cars and on highway overpasses, and the Smiths began their gauntlet of TV appeals.
"Me and my wife plea to you, please return our children to us," David Smith told the "carjacker".
As time passed, the search became more frantic.
By the time five days had passed, the temperature had already dropped below freezing multiple times.
Police refused to rule out the Smiths, who had separated and filed for divorce shortly before the boys disappeared.
Susan Smith had already been interviewed multiple times by police, and more information was coming to light behind the scenes.
A maintenance worker had come forward to say the intersection she had stopped at would not have turned red without any other cars present.
Police had also received a copy of a "Dear John" letter from Tom Findlay, a man Susan Smith had been seeing romantically up until a week before the children disappeared.
Michael and Alexander.
In the letter, Mr Findlay told her he was not ready for a relationship involving children.
Retired FBI agent Pete Logan told the newspaper The State in 2021 that he knew the case "may not have been solved" without Susan Smith's cooperation.
"I knew I couldn't be hard on her because the last time someone got difficult with her and hollered at her, she walked out," he said.
"I took it very slowly. It took five days of interviews to get to the end."
Finally, she confessed to killing both boys and fabricating the entire story.
"She dropped to the floor on her knees, crying hysterically," Mr Logan said.
"She said she wanted to go in and stop the car, but didn't know how to put the brakes on … whether or not you want to believe that, that's questionable."
In the days that followed, police recovered the car, which was at the bottom of Lake John D Long, close to Union.
The bodies of Michael and Alexander were in the back seat, still strapped into their car seats.
Lawyers say Susan Smith made 'irrational' decision before boys died
Lead prosecutor Tommy Pope said Susan Smith had "had a choice" when the boys died.
"She made a choice that would end the lives of those boys," he told the jury at trial.
"That choice was the one thing Michael and Alex Smith never had, strapped in that car, screaming for help."
David Smith kept a photo of his sons fastened to his shirt during the trial.
Prosecutors said the mother had been motivated by her break-up with Mr Findlay, and had decided to get rid of Michael and Alexander to continue her relationship with him.
They argued her actions warranted the death penalty.
But her legal team said she had planned to take her own life along with her sons', but panicked and jumped out of the car at the last minute.
Susan claimed she had planned to die alongside her sons.
Her lawyer, Judy Clarke, said Susan Smith had been a victim of childhood abuse and struggled with depression.
"This is not a case about evil," she said in her closing argument.
"This is a case about despair and sadness. [Smith] had choices and decisions. Her choices were irrational, and her decisions were tragic.
"She made a horrible, horrible decision to be at that lake that night. She made that decision with a confused mind and a heart without hope.
"Confusion is not evil, and hopelessness is not malice."
After a 12-day trial, it took less than 3 hours for the jury to find Susan Smith guilty of first-degree murder.
She was sentenced to two terms of life in prison to be served simultaneously.
'I am not the monster society thinks I am'
Susan Smith is now 53 years old.
In August this year, she was charged with communicating with a victim and/or witness — she had been caught speaking to a documentary filmmaker.
According to the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC), she had agreed to give the filmmaker the contact information of friends and family, including her former husband.
She had also received money from them.
SCDC policy says inmates are not allowed to do interviews while in custody.
The charge did not stop her from becoming eligible for parole earlier this month.
Prison records, according to ABC News US, showed she has also been sanctioned for self-harm and drug use while behind bars.
In 2015, she wrote a letter to The State, telling the outlet the killings were unplanned.
"I didn't know how to tell the people who loved Michael and Alex that they would never see them again," she wrote.
"I am not the monster society thinks I am. I am far from it.
"Something went very wrong that night. I was not myself. I was a good mother, and I loved my boys."
State's parole board receives hundreds of letters about hearing
Susan Smith's parole hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, local time.
Her prosecutor and her ex are expected to testify at the virtual hearing, where she will appear via video link from prison.
A funeral for both boys was held just days after their mother's confession.
Mr Pope told USA Today he did not believe she should be granted parole.
"I believe in truth in sentencing for everyone, and I think the sentence should be exactly what it was, what the jury rendered, which was that she would spend the rest of her natural life in prison," he said.
"What I would want to relate to the parole board is that Susan Smith has not been thinking of Michael and Alex.
"Susan Smith has been focused on what's best for Susan, which has clearly been what she has done from day one in committing this crime."
In order to be granted parole, she will need at least two-thirds of the seven-member parole board to vote in her favour.
A press conference announcing the decision will be held immediately after the hearing.
According to local outlets, only 8 per cent of parole applications by violent offenders are granted.
The South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services said it had received 360 letters regarding her parole hearing.
Only six were in favour of her release.
While David Smith said he has given the woman who killed his sons his forgiveness, he does not want her to be released.
In September, he told Court TV he had not spoken to her since shortly after her arrest in 1994.
"I just want to remind [the parole board] of what she did, of who were the victims in this case," he said, adding due to trauma, he only remembered "snippets" of his sons.
"Early on, I sought professional help, and all of them told me the same thing, that the memories would eventually come back.
"At the time, it was my own system taking care of me and not letting me have any memories [to] protect me.
"Now it's 30 years later, those memories still haven't come back."
Asked what he would say to his ex-wife if given the chance, he said: "I would just tell her, 'You have no idea how much damage you have done to so many people.'
"I would tell her that … I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure you stay behind bars."
By：ABC(责任编辑：admin)
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