Susan Smith, the South Carolina mother who drowned her two young sons in a lake in the 1990s, will have a parole hearing in a month.
In October 1994, Smith, then 22, strapped her sons Michael Smith and Alexander Smith into the back seat of her car and watched it pull into John D. Lake in Union County. It took six minutes for the two boys, one 3 years old and the other 14 months old, to drown.
“She spent nine days claiming that a carjacker had taken her children and pleading for help, which led to the ongoing search,” said Tommy Pope, a former Union County prosecutor and current South Carolina state lawmaker. he told Fox News Digital. “To tell you the truth, she probably believed it was.” [the kids] Based on my law enforcement experience, I hid them somewhere just because I didn't think carjackers would take the kids. ”
Specifically, after killing her sons, Smith falsely claimed to investigators and reporters that a black man had carjacked her with Michael and Alexander still in the car.
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Susan Smith, pictured on the left and pictured on the right when she was 22 years old in 1994, has been imprisoned in South Carolina for nearly 30 years for the murders of her two sons. (South Carolina Department of Corrections)
“She was on 'Good Morning America,' on every major station, and she was doing that, pleading with kids,” Pope recalled. “The only thing I saw from the beginning was that they had video footage from a local television station that actually went to the house she visited on the night she claimed she was carjacked. [Smith’s] Her husband, David, was called to the scene. And of course he looked like someone who had just been informed that their children had been kidnapped. And Susan was a little giddy about being on TV. I think she really liked the attention. ”
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Susan Smith was found guilty of murdering her two sons, 3-year-old Michael Daniel Smith and 14-month-old Alexander Tyler Smith, on July 22, 1995. (Greg Smith/Corbis)
As for the motive, Pope said Smith was having an affair at the time with Tom Findlay, the son of a wealthy local business owner, who, in a letter to Smith a week before the murders, said he was 22 years old. He said that he told the woman: Although he had a romantic interest in her, he was not fit to raise a child. Birmingham News reported In a 2005 interview with Findlay, he said:
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Susan Smith was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her two sons. (William Campbell/Sigma)
“I don't think he meant to tell her to give up the kids. I think he just wanted to break up with her because he lost interest and he envisioned a luxurious life with her. , I think he took that to heart, “Rich,'' said the New York Post columnist who reported on the 1994 murders and wrote a book about the case, “Mother Love, Deadly Love: The Susan Smith Murders.'' said Andrea Peyser, author of .
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Susan Smith was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after murdering her two sons in 1994. (Brooks Craft LLC/Sigma)
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Meanwhile, prison officials announced that Smith, now 52, had a sexual relationship with a guard during his 30-year sentence. interviews with people In 2020.
“She's not doing a bad time in prison.”
Pope sought the death penalty for Smith at her 1995 trial, but now believes she should not be eligible for parole.
“Some jurors even said they gave her life after the fact under the theory that she would regret it and spend the time thinking about Michael and Alex. Well, she did. Her conduct in prison showed that she had a sexual relationship with a guard.''She has Facebook friends and sugar daddies waiting for her to come out,'' Pope said. “She's thinking about what's best for Susan, not what happened to Michael and Alex.”
Pizer also believes Smith should not be eligible for parole, given his lack of remorse or responsibility for his actions during the 30 years he was in prison. .
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Susan Smith initially claimed she had been carjacked, but evidence later revealed that she had killed two of her young sons, Michael and Alexander. (Brooks Craft LLC/Sigma)
“She's caused so much damage that she's had all kinds of innocent men investigated. It's unfair in every sense of the word. She's a really sad and horrible person,” Pizer said.
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Peiser described the town of Union as “a little crazy” at the time he was covering the case.
“Of course, she was a woman who grew up there and lived there most of her life, and the town accepted her in a way while blaming her husband, who was really innocent in this situation. So all “What happened was really terrible,” Peiser recalled.
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A Facebook page dedicated to Michael and Alexander Smith is asking its followers to submit letters to the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardons opposing Smith's release.
