Smith, 53, is serving life in prison after a U.S. jury decided not to sentence her to death in her 1995 murder trial after she was convicted of rolling her car into a lake and drowning her two sons
Visitors walk down the ramp where Alex and Michael Smith were drowned in a car in 1994 in Union, S.C., by their mother, Susan Smith , in 1995.Susan Smith will be up for parole next month, nearly 30 years after she was convicted of rolling her car into a South Carolina lake and drowning her two sons who were strapped in their car seats.
Parole in South Carolina is only granted about 8% of the time and is less likely on an inmate’s first appearance before the board, in notorious cases or when prosecutors and the families of victims are opposed. Smith falls in all of those categories. 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 white, said the carjacker was Black.
Investigators said Smith’s story didn’t add up. Carjackers usually just want a vehicle, so investigators asked why would they let Smith out but not her kids. The traffic light where Smith said she had stopped when her car was taken would only be red if another car was waiting to cross and Smith said no other cars were around. And other bits and pieces of the story did not make sense.
Prosecutors sought the death penalty and the trial of the young mother became a national sensation and a true crime touchstone even though it wasn’t televised by a judge who worried about what cameras were doing to the O.J. Simpson murder trial going on at the same time. A jury convicted Smith but decided she did not deserve the death penalty.
She unsuccessfully tried to appeal her conviction, saying her husband David Smith abused her. He adamantly denied it and authorities said there was no proof.
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