Background: On November 20, 2024, Susan Smith shows up for her parole hearing (Law&Crime). Inset: Michael and Alex Smith’s grave at the Bogansville Methodist Church, July 23, 1995, West Springs, South Carolina. (Ruth Fremson/AP Photo, file)
On November 20, Susan Smith, who killed her two toddler kids and misled the public about how they died, went before a parole board in South Carolina and was refused freedom.
Smith arrived from the prison where she is being kept via Zoom. Prior to her remarks, her lawyer Tommy Thomas defended his client, arguing that Smith’s conviction for the killings was due to a mental health condition, specifically postpartum depression after giving birth to her younger son. Additionally, he stated that his client genuinely regretted the killings she carried out in October 1994. Thomas stated that Smith would never be able to forgive herself as he concluded his remarks.
Smith was moved to tears when invited to speak, and she expressed regret for what she had done. She said, “I know what I did was horrible, and I would give anything if I could go back and change it,” after gathering her thoughts. She also expressed regret for the wasting of police resources in looking for her children and a nonexistent suspect.
When questioned about the multiple offenses she had committed while incarcerated, Smith acknowledged them and attributed them to her own foolishness. She went on to say that she learned from them and grew up while she was inside. Smith responded, “People are important, forgiveness and love are important, family is important, and decisions we make [don’t] just affect us, they affect the people that we love,” when asked what the most significant lesson she has learnt was. and to not assume anything or anyone.
Following statements from Smith and her attorneys, her ex-husband David Smith, additional members of his family and friends, and prosecutors spoke out against Smith’s release. The first person to speak was Tommy Pope, the original prosecutor, who reminded everyone that the case had started out as a death penalty case. He claimed that the original, made-up suspect would have most certainly received the death penalty if he had been found guilty. He claimed that David Smith would have received the same punishment if he had been proven guilty.
Pope also noted that the evidence did not support Susan Smith’s assertion that the act was a component of a failed suicide attempt. In closing, he requested that the board reject parole.
According to Kevin Brackett, another member of the prosecution team, Smith’s lies caused a worldwide sensation, with the entire nation falling victim to her deceit and betrayal. Additionally, he said that Smith should not be released from prison until the last individual who remembers Michael and Alex has passed away. And she won’t live to see that. Neither should she ever be freed, nor should she be freed at this time. “His hopes and dreams were dashed,” he continued, referring to David Smith. Today and every two years after that, I hope you dash hers.
Rebecca Smith French, David Smith’s sister and the aunt of the boys, talked about how, as a teenager, she had really admired Susan but had subsequently lost faith in her and struggled to build relationships after the killings. Doug Smith became distraught multiple times after French, David Smith’s uncle, told him how his nephew wanted to visit the boys but was told not to after they had been in the sea for nine days.
The final person to speak was David Smith, who claimed that God had given humans free will. And she freely decided to take their lives that evening. This was not a grave error. This was not something she intended to do. Her intention was to kill them.
Smith strapped her three-year-old son Michael and her fourteen-month-old son Alex into their car seats and drove her car into John D. Long Lake thirty years ago, drowning them. For over a week, Smith, who knew exactly where her kids were, went public and made up the story that a Black man had robbed her while the boys were still in the car. She begged for her children’s safe return with her spouse by her side.
Following the collapse of her narrative, Smith admitted to having an affair with a man who didn’t want children and to allowing them to drown. She was given a life sentence following her 1995 trial for the double murder. However, at the time of her conviction, South Carolina state law permitted parole following a 30-year sentence. She can now request her freedom by appearing before a parole board every two years.
The father of Michael and Alex, Smith’s ex-husband David Smith, was present in the courtroom to protest Smith’s release. They can’t let her go, he told NBC’s Today Show. Thirty years is simply insufficient. This was no coincidence. She killed Alex and Michael on purpose.
He went on, “I don’t think she’ll ever be rehabilitated.”
Smith’s actions during her thirty years in prison kept making news. Tommy Pope, a former prosecutor, claimed that Smith provided her ex-husband’s and other family members’ contact details after a documentary director promised to compensate her. In addition, she was found to have used illegal narcotics and had several extramarital affairs while there, including one with Alfred Rowe, a former prison guard. In August, Rowe told NewsNation that he also disagreed with Smith’s release, claiming that she had only learnt how to commit crimes.
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