Susan Smith, currently serving time in prison for the cold-blooded murder of her two young sons in 1994, has a parole hearing in six weeks. Her family says she's put together at least four arguments in her bid for release, including that she's (mostly) been well-behaved in prison.
“We believe she will be free within two months,” a relative told The Post.
“And she [the parole hearing] She will go her own way. She has pinned all her hopes on that basket, and it represents freedom.”
According to information obtained by The Post, Smith, 52, plans to argue that growing up in a sexually abusive home distorted her sense of right and wrong. “She has a different moral sense than most people because of the trauma she experienced,” the relative said. “It's really had a big impact on her.”
Secondly, I would argue that Ms Smith was not in her right mind as a young mother and may have suffered from an undiagnosed mental illness.
When she was a 22-year-old mother, she crashed her car into John D. Long Lake in Union County, South Carolina, with her sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander, still in their car seats.
It's an argument Smith has used before: “I am not the monster society thinks I am,” she wrote from prison. State reporter 2015.
“Something went terribly wrong that night. I wasn't myself. It wasn't a planned event, there was no motive. I was out of my mind.”
Smith also discusses the fact that she was disciplined in prison in 2000 for having sex with two prison guards, though she has always maintained that the sex was not consensual due to power differences.
“I was a victim,” she told an outside friend in 2023, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. “I had sex with both of them because I felt I had no choice.”
Finally, Smith plans to argue that she has turned her life around in prison: She has a steady job and has not faced disciplinary action in nearly a decade, according to records obtained by The Washington Post.
But she has several violations in prison, including in 2010 and 2015, for possessing drugs and marijuana.
“She has grown into a mature woman,” her family told The Post, “and believes she can survive outside of prison.”
But the father of the children she murdered plans to strongly oppose her parole request.
In an interview Court TV Last week, David Smith said he planned to write or speak to the parole board opposing her release.
“I'm going to remind them what she did and who the victim is in this case,” David Smith said. “Of course it's not her.”
Smith has been incarcerated at Leith Correctional Facility in Greenwood for more than two decades following the infamous murders of his two sons.
She stood by the lake as the car sank to the bottom and the two boys slowly drowned.
Smith then falsely reported to police that a black man had stolen his car and kidnapped the boys, leading authorities to conduct a door-to-door search in predominantly African-American neighborhoods.
Smith and her then-husband appeared on national news every day, praying for their sons' safe return.
But nine days later, Smith finally confessed that there had been no carjacking and that he had drowned his sons in a lake.
Her motive was that she was having an affair with a wealthy man who didn't want children. The car was pulled from the water with both boys still in their seatbelts.
She was convicted of murder but avoided the death penalty, instead receiving a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 30 years.
Although experts don't believe parole will be successful, Smith remains optimistic he will be released.
“I think it's about time,” she told one potential suitor from prison earlier this year. “I've paid my debt. I deserve to be released. I'm no longer a danger to anyone. Just let me live my life.”
