Susan Smith will be eligible for parole next month, nearly 30 years after being convicted of pushing her car into a South Carolina lake and drowning her two sons who were strapped in their car seats.
Smith, 53, is serving life in prison after a jury declined to condemn her to death in her 1995 murder trial. According to the law at the time, she is eligible for release after serving 30 years in prison.
The state Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services announced Monday that Smith’s hearing is scheduled for November 20. Parole hearings are conducted digitally in South Carolina, with the convict participating via video call from prison.
In South Carolina, parole is granted only around 8% of the time, and it is less likely on an inmate’s first appearance before the board, in notorious cases, or when prosecutors and victims’ families disagree. Smith comes within all of these categories.
“The jury believed she got a life sentence, and that’s what she should serve,” said Tommy Pope, Smith’s main prosecutor and current Republican Speaker Pro Tem of the South Carolina House.
“Secondarily, I would look to her actions in prison to demonstrate, tragically, what a juror hoped for: that she would be remorseful and think about those children. “She has proven that she is only concerned with Susan Smith,” Pope remarked.
Smith made international headlines in October 1994 when she said she was carjacked late at night near the city of Union and that a man drove away with her sons inside. Smith, who is Caucasian, claimed the carjacker was black.
For nine days, Smith made many, sometimes emotional, requests for the safe return of 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex.
However, the boys and Smith’s car remained at the bottom of nearby John D. Long Lake throughout the incident, according to investigators.
Investigators stated Smith’s explanation did not add up. Carjackers often only seek a vehicle, so investigators questioned why they let Smith out but not her children. The traffic signal where Smith claimed she had stopped when her car was stolen would only be red if another car was waiting to cross, and Smith stated that no other automobiles were there. And other parts of the story did not make sense.
Smith admitted to letting her automobile roll down a boat ramp into the lake. Investigators recreated the incident, and it took six minutes for the Mazda to sink below the water’s surface, while cameras inside the vehicle showed water flowing in from the vents and steadily increasing. The boys’ bodies were discovered hung upside down in their car seats, with one little hand pressed against a window.
Prosecutors claimed Smith was having an affair with the rich son of the owner of the business where she worked. He cut it off because she had two small sons, and Smith determined that was how she would handle the situation.
Prosecutors sought the death penalty, and the young mother’s trial became a national phenomenon and true crime touchstone, although it was not televised by a judge who was concerned about the impact of cameras on the O.J. Simpson murder trial, which was taking place at the same time. A jury found Smith guilty but determined she did not warrant the death punishment.
Smith’s lawyers said she was sorry, had a mental breakdown, and planned to die with her children but abandoned the car at the last minute.
Smith’s 30 years in prison have also been interesting. South Carolina jail laws prohibit television interviews, but Smith has regularly written to reporters, true crime enthusiasts, and possible suitors, who then discuss the letters publicly.
She unsuccessfully appealed her conviction, claiming that her husband, David Smith, mistreated her. He vehemently denied it, and authorities claimed there was no evidence.
“During the next 30 years — again, it’s hard to believe it’s happened so quickly — she had intercourse with guards. She has received notice for her social media opportunities. “She has sugar daddies who can’t wait for her to get out and support her,” Pope explained.
Pope said David Smith intends to join him in opposing his ex-wife’s parole.
In an interview with Court TV, David Smith stated that he struggles to recall his boys. He stated that while he has forgiven Susan Smith, it does not change the reality that she murdered their children and deserves to serve more than 30 years in prison for it.
“You have no idea how much damage you have done to so many people,” David Smith remarked during the Court TV interview. “In my capabilities, I am going to do everything in my power to make sure you stay behind bars.”
Pope intends to convince the parole board that when jurors rejected the death penalty, they assumed a life sentence meant the rest of her life and did not believe she could be released after only 30 years.
Pope expects Susan Smith to present her case to the parole board. He believes she will try to persuade the board to grant her parole by appealing to the same sympathy and difficulties in believing a mother would do such things to her children.
“She’s been rehearsing what she’ll say to the parole board for 30 years,” says Pope.
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Susan Smith is up for parole 30 years after drowning her kids in a South Carolina lake