The Independent: Susan Smith denied parole after serving 30 years for drowning her children

[Dennis Donovan]

The Independent - Susan Smith denied parole after serving 30 years for drowning her children

Susan Smith, 53, appeared before a parole board via a video feed from prison Wednesday to plead for her freedom

Andrea Cavallier
Wednesday 20 November 2024 18:08 GMT

A South Carolina mother who killed her two young sons in 1994 by strapping them in their car seats and letting the car roll into a lake has been denied parole after 30 years behind bars.

Susan Smith, 53, appeared via video feed from prison on Wednesday and pleaded with a seven-member parole board for her freedom three decades after the deaths of Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months.

A jury convicted Smith of murder but decided not to sentence her to death. Under state law at the time, she is eligible for a parole hearing every two years now that she has spent 30 years behind bars.

Smith’s ex-husband and father of the children, David Smith, and Tommy Pope, the prosecutor at her murder trial, made arguments as to why they believe she should remain incarcerated.



/snip

This sticks in my mind because I was on vacation in SC the week this happened, so it was a local story (quickly becoming a national story).

[phylny]

1. Good.

I do not believe in the death penalty, but I do believe in life in prison without parole for what she did. I remember this when it happened and it was horrible.

[joshcryer]

4. My dad called it as soon as she went on TV.

He said "She did it!" Nobody believed him until it came out.

[tenderfoot]

6. Same here. I knew it was her from the moment GO!

A black man carjacking a white woman with two children in the back... in South Carolina...

Fuckin' spare me.

[phylny]

11. She talked about her children the past tense

if I’m remembering right, and then the authorities knew.

[OLDMDDEM]

2. I am glad to read this. She doesn't deserve to be out in the real world.

[joshcryer]

3. She probably would have got parole had she not been boning prison guards.

The whole reason she did it was to get rid of the kids and be with her fling, then she has multiple flings in prison? She has a problem alright.

[obamanut2012]

8. You mean being sexually assaulted by the guards

She did not have any flings with those in power over here. Period.

[Xavier Breath]

5. At the time didn't Rush and company basically blame Bill Clinton for her doing that?

Something abut legalized abortion desensitizing us all to child murder IIRC.

[unitedwethrive]

7. Wow, that was 30 years ago?

Time flies...I guess not so much for people in prison.

[maxsolomon]

9. She'll never get out.

Prison has 4 purposes:

Retribution
Punishing individuals for their crimes by depriving them of their liberty
Incapacitation
Removing dangerous individuals from society to reduce their ability to commit crimes
Deterrence
Discouraging people from committing crimes by making them fear the consequences of getting caught
Rehabilitation
Preparing offenders for release by helping them reduce the risk of reoffending

She's in there for life for 1 reason: Retribution. Maybe if she had done that in a liberal state, she'd get out eventually. But not in SC. No way.

[Solly Mack]

10. She should have gotten additional time for trying to get black men killed.

Once she blamed a black man, the risk to all black men in the area increased and it could have gone very bad.