COLUMBIA, S.C. — Susan Smith, the mother convicted of killing her children 30 years ago in South Carolina, appeared before a parole board for the first time on Wednesday.
It was Smith’s first hearing after becoming eligible for parole this year. She was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison after killing her children in 1994.
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The parole board called Smith up at about 11:45 a.m., and she appeared remotely from the Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood.
An attorney for Smith, Tommy Thomas, spoke before the parole board and said he believes Smith is remorseful.
“I believe she would do anything in the world to bring these children back,” Thomas said.
Susan Smith speaks
Smith cried when first addressing the parole board, saying: “First of all, I want to say I’m very sorry. I know what I did was horrible and I’d give anything to go back and change it.”
Smith was convicted after prosecutors said she rolled her car into a lake in Union County, South Carolina, with her two children still strapped inside. She then lied to police and reported that she had been carjacked by a Black man with her children still inside. She ended up confessing after her report led to a manhunt for her children and the alleged carjacker.
The parole board asked Smith what she would tell the people who worked hard to find her children.
“I’m sorry that I put them through that, I really, really am,” Smith said. “I wish I could take that back. I really do. I didn’t lie to get away with it, really didn’t, I was just scared. I didn’t know how I could tell the people that loved them but they would never see them again. I didn’t know how I could tell David he couldn’t see his son again.”
The board brought up Smith’s infractions while behind bars, including illegally communicating with a filmmaker, and having relationships with two prison guards.
“I trusted the wrong person. This lady contacted me, and I trusted her. I thought she was going to do a documentary on mental health. And I really am not guilty of what they charged me with, and I have found an appeal on that charge,” Smith said. “The things that I have been found guilty of in here have been just stupidity I just made. I know I make a lot of mistakes in here, and I have learned from them, and before this last impression, have been 10 years because I grew up and I knew that I needed to stop making dumb decisions, and I did. I just, I knew it was time to just to grow up and do the right thing. I just made a lot of dumb choices and mistakes in here, so I know I’ve learned from those mistakes.”
(EXTRA: A look back at the coverage of Susan Smith’s children before she was convicted of murder)
The board asked Smith if there was anything else she wanted to tell them.
“I am a Christian, and God is a big part of my life, and I know he has forgiven me, and it is by His grace and mercy that I have a lot of faith, and I live by that every day, and I just ask that you show that same kind of mercy as well,” she said.
The arguments against her release
Numerous people spoke out against Smith’s release, including former prosecutor Tommy Pope, solicitor Kevin Brackett, and the father of Smith’s children, David Smith.
They all wore photos of the two children, Alexander and Michael.
Pope said it was originally a death penalty case, but jurors gave her a life sentence. Pope said one juror told him that they believed life in prison would be the greater punishment.
However, Pope said jurors didn’t know that Smith would be eligible for parole when they sentenced her to life in prison. South Carolina changed the law in 1996 to make a life sentence last a convict’s entire life.
Brackett addressed the board and recounted the case, saying Smith drowned her children in an attempt to change her life and be with another lover.
“She wanted to kill her old life and start anew. She was wearing a sweatshirt that the man who she was cheating with had given to her when she was on TV two hours later, after claiming that a Black man in a toboggan [hat] had carjacked her and spirited her two children away,” Brackett said.
Brackett said the entire country was “in the grips of her lies and treachery.”
A family member spoke about the impact Smith’s crimes had on their family, and she cried while recalling how Smith drowned the two children.
“Susan betrayed us and took the lives of those boys and then lied about it for days,” said Rebecca Smith French, the boys’ aunt. “When she did this, she destroyed a trust in me that I’ve never regained, and as a result, I do not develop close relationships with others easily.”
Smith French said the boys “never had a chance to live a life of their own.”
“Susan took that from them. She took that from us all. I know she wants a chance to be free after only serving 30 years. No; life should mean life,” she said.
More family members shared their experiences in the aftermath of the killings, and said Smith’s actions changed their lives forever. They asked the board to deny Smith’s request for release.
David Smith spoke to the board and said his ex-wife “made her choice that night.”
“This wasn’t a mistake, this wasn’t something she didn’t mean to do ... I never have felt any remorse from her for it. She never expressed any to me. I never seen it on paper,” David said.
“What she did not only to Michael and Alex, she came pretty close to causing the end of my life because of the grief that she brought upon me. Thankfully, she didn’t,” he said.
David says he understands that the law made her eligible, but he said she hadn’t served enough time.
“But ultimately, to me, that’s only 15 years per child, her own children. It’s just not enough,” he said. “So I’m asking that you please not parole her today, and hopefully not in the future, but specifically today.”
After hearing from family members, the parole board voted unanimously to deny Smith’s parole.
Smith can request a new parole hearing in two years.
‘I’m glad she got denied’: Locals react
Union County residents said after the parole hearing, that they’ve seen Smith cry before.
“I can’t believe she was sorry throwing the kids in the lake,” said resident Marvin Smith.
If Smith was looking for a sympathetic audience, she didn’t find it in her hometown.
Tara Palmer grew up there and remembers the case well.
“I’m glad she got denied,” said Palmer, a resident. “She don’t deserve to be out at all.”
It bothers her that Union is known nationally only for the Susan Smith case.
“Oh yes sir, yeah, very much that made our little town famous because of her doing that to those kids,” Palmer said.
Residents said Smith’s blame on an imaginary Black man increased hostility in the community.
“It made me feel like Union County is still a racial county,” said resident William Gist.
Gist was 25 years old at the time and remembers the tension the case produced.
At the lake, there is a memorial with flowers and stuffed animals for the two boys.
Tony Archiere and his family visit the memorial often.
“It’s a horrible feeling,” he said. “You think of the kids. (The memorial is) all right there every time you pull in there.”
(VIDEO: Sheriff: Man on parole for 1996 murder accused in triple-homicide near Red Springs)
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