Susan Smith, who killed her 2 young children 30 years ago, denied parole

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: CNN

Susan Smith, who killed her 2 young children 30 years ago, denied parole

By Chris Boyette, CNN
5 minute read Updated 1:17 PM EST, Wed November 20, 2024

(CNN) -- Susan Smith, who has served 30 years of a life sentence for killing her two young sons in 1994, was denied parole by the South Carolina Board of Paroles and Pardons on Wednesday. ... Smith testified on her own behalf Wednesday, pleading for her release via video before the board in Columbia. She is serving a life sentence at Leath Correctional Institution after she confessed to rolling her car into a lake in 1994, killing 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex.

"I know that what I did was horrible," she tearfully told the board. ... The parole board asked Smith about previous disciplinary charges in prison and she said she had learned from her mistakes. ... Smith ended her testimony asking for parole to be granted. ... "I am a Christian and God is a big part of my life and I know he has forgiven me and I know that is by his grace and mercy ..." Smith said. "And I just ask that you show that same kind of mercy as well."

The hearing then continued with the board hearing from witnesses opposing parole for Smith, including David Smith, her ex-husband and the father of the boys. "What she did not only to Michael and Alex, she came pretty close to causing me to end my life because of the grief she brought upon me," David Smith said before the board.

Susan Smith, then 23, told police in November 1994 her sons were taken when she was carjacked by a Black man in the city of Union, South Carolina, in late October, setting off a manhunt and a barrage of media attention on the young mother. ... But it would turn out Smith's young children were already dead - strapped in their car seats at the bottom of nearby John D. Long Lake, authorities said. ... Investigators were skeptical of Smith's story from the start, and eventually, under questioning, she confessed to rolling her car into the lake, killing her sons. The story made international headlines, and her 1995 murder trial was followed closely around the world.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/20/us/susan-smith-children-car-death-parole/index.html

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Dennis Donovan has a thread in GD too. I did not see it until after I had posted here in LBN.

The Independent: Susan Smith denied parole after serving 30 years for drowning her children
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219745474

[hlthe2b]

1. A horrific story that has been repeated all too many times since.

Men who kill their entire families, women who kill their children and themselves (often). We really haven't learned anything to prevent them... Sigh

[no_hypocrisy]

3. AND

she tried to pin it in any available African America, who would have arrested and convicted — or lynched.

[hlthe2b]

6. Yes... Something that wipes out any attempt to make her sympathetic (assuming she "could" be)

[underpants]

9. NOT in any way an excuse but her whole story is chilling

Her “boyfriend” had just broken up with her. I’d say these were probably his kids. Her longtime “boyfriend” who pre-dated her marriage but post-dating when her “boyfriend” married her mother when she was as 12 or 13.

He was a Republican politician of some sort in SC. He walked away from unscathed and is rarely mentioned in the whole story.

[ShazzieB]

14. I'm not sure what you mean here.

Her “boyfriend” had just broken up with her. I’d say these were probably his kids.

If you mean the "boyfriend" was the father of her kids, I doubt it. I don't remember any questions ever being raised about the paternity of those boys.

Also, from what I've read, she killed them because she thought (probably erroneously) that she might be able to get the "boyfriend" back if she was not encumbered with 2 small children. That doesn't align with the idea of the kids being his.

Edited to add: Just came across another pertinent piece of information: Tom Findlay, the boyfriend, testified at her trial, "introducing the letter he wrote Susan Smith to the jury. In the letter, Findlay explained he did not want to be in a relationship that included children." Source: https://www.wyff4.com/article/local-history-arrest-parole-killer-susan-smith/62028246

[underpants]

15. He was her stepfather. He'd started abusing pretty much as soon as he married her mother.

I wasn’t aware of that part of the story until years after this. I may have learned about it on DU. Just like backstory on Mary Kay Letourneau and her mess of a father. He got got primaried way back in the day by Orange Co. Republicans- yeah he was that far off the right side.

The kids being the stepfathers is speculative. But, since that is never reported on it stands to reason that the motive the press still uses is just at best lazy.

[ShazzieB]

19. Oh, when you said "boyfriend," I assumed you meant the guy who had just broken up with her.

I'm still not sure if that's what you meant, but the boyfriend and the stepfather were 2 different people. The stepfather's name was Beverly Russell, and the boyfriend who dumped her because he didn't want a relationship with kids involved was Tom Findlay.

I followed the case pretty closely at the time, and have also read a book about it, and I don't see any reason to suspect that Smith's husband was not the father of her kids.

Russell molested her when she was a teenager, but the boys were born after she was married to David Smith. It would have been very unusual for the molestation to have continued after she was married and living in her own home with her husband.

As for Findlay, iirc she already had the 2 kids when she got involved with him, and as I said, he dumped her because she didn't want to to be in a relationship with a woman who had kids.

I'm sure that neither the cops or the media dug into the paternity angle because they didn't think there was any reason to do so. She confessed to the crime and has never recanted; and her motive of hoping to get Findlay back seems believable to me. Ymmv, I guess.

[underpants]

24. Okay. Thanks. I didn't know about the other boyfriend

You know more than me obviously. I did think that her stepfather continued to abuse her. That’s a how I understood it.

[applegrove]

2. Good. She killed 2 kids horrifically. That should be 2 life sentences.

[SCantiGOP]

16. She is currently serving two life sentences

[applegrove]

17. But it has only been 30 years and she was up for parole.

Keep her in prison w/out parole for 40 years or more.

[SCantiGOP]

18. In SC, a someone with a life sentence

Last edited Wed Nov 20, 2024, 07:20 PM - Edit history (1)

is eligible for parole after they serve 10 years.
Her two sentences were to be served concurrently.
:::::::: on edit, I was wrong, SC requires a life sentence serve at least 30 years, so this was her first chance. The denial was unanimous by the Parole Board.

[Rebl2]

22. She needs

to stay there for the rest of her life.

[Deuxcents]

4. Good.

[keithbvadu2]

5. Good!

[ZonkerHarris]

7. Die in prison lady. soon please

[sinkingfeeling]

8. This quote is just beyond sick ....

"I am a Christian and God is a big part of my life and I know he has forgiven me ..."

[Upthevibe]

10. sinkingfeeling............

That stood out to me as well.....

I guess all these so-called "Christians" really have to do is ask for God's forgiveness and accept Jesus Christ as their only Lord and Savior and ALL of their "sins" are pardoned....And then they get to go to Heaven....SICKOS!

[colorado_ufo]

25. If this is true . . .

she should be grateful for the mercy shown her and WANT to spend the rest of her life in prison, repenting and doing whatever good she might be capable of.

She is mentally ill. What kind of life does she think she would have out of prison? Who would hire her? Who would want to begin a relationship with her? Who would want to be her neighbor? She is better off in prison, even if she doesn't realize it.

[Vinca]

11. Good - denied parole.

[Archae]

12. Newt Gingrich tried to make political hay of Smith, but it really backfired on him when more came out.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 (1994) -- White House officials and other Democrats expressed outrage Monday at Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., for putting a political spin on the tragic killings of two young brothers in South Carolina. Gingrich, during a weekend campaign stop, told a small gathering of supporters that 'the mother killing her two children in South Carolina vividly reminds every American how sick the society is getting and how much we have to have change.' 'I think people want to change, and the only way you get change is to vote Republican,' Gingrich said.

It was exposed later that Smith had been having sex with her conservative Father for years before she had her two boys.

[keithbvadu2]

20. Republicans put the spin on it that it's not so bad because she was his adopted, not biological daughter.

[Montauk6]

13. From the "HEY!!! NO FAIR REMEMBERING STUFF!!!" file

Newt Gingrich (1994): "The mother killing her two children in South Carolina vividly reminds every American how sick the society is getting and how much we have to change. People want to change and the only way you get change is to vote Republican."

Malloy 3:16: "Have I mentioned today how much I REALLY hate these people?"

[BigmanPigman]

21. Are parole boards allowed to

use any info from the trial to address concerns that may linger? I know that the police reenactment of the 2 boys drowning really made the jury horrified.

[TexasBushwhacker]

23. IIRC, she initially said a black man carjacked the vehicle

In South Carolina, she could have gotten an innocent man killed. She can rot in prison.

[maxrandb]

26. Blamed it on a black carjacker

Have to read to paragraph 4 before that fact is brought up. That made those murders even more horrific.

A South Carolina white woman falsely claiming a black man killed her sons. She knew exactly what she was doing.

Meet the new boss. Same as they old boss.

[LoisB]

27. Good.