'Ultimate betrayal': Susan Smith denied parole after killing her sons 30 years ago

The South Carolina woman convicted of drowning her two young sons 30 years ago, in a racially charged case that made her the object of international pity and then scorn, has been denied parole in a unanimous vote.

Susan Smith, who rolled her auto into a lake with her toddlers strapped to car seats as she sought to preserve an extramarital affair, had her first parole hearing Wednesday. Smith got emotional as she made her plea for parole remotely from the Leath Correctional Institute in Greenwood, South Carolina.

"First of all I want to say how very sorry I am. I know that what I did was horrible and I would do anything to go back and change it. I love Michael and Alex with all my heart," she said.

Smith's attorney, Tommy Thomas, said he believes that untreated mental health issues resulted in her crimes, and that she is "truly remorseful."

Smith's parole was denied because of the nature and seriousness of the crimes and her unfavorable institutional record, said Valerie Suber, the associate deputy director for paroles, pardons, and release services. Suber said Smith will be eligible again for parole consideration in two years.

At a time of racial tensions when the country was captivated by the O.J. Simpson murder case, and in a highly conservative part of the Deep South, Smith initially said an armed Black man carjacked her and kidnapped her sons Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months.

Law enforcement agents and volunteers searched for them amid intense media attention as Smith pleaded for their return on national TV. After nine days, she confessed to killing the boys, setting off shockwaves. It was later revealed Smith, 23 at the time, was separated from her husband and was having a romance with a wealthy man, Tom Findlay, who wanted to end the relationship because she had children.

“It's the ultimate betrayal,’’ Tommy Pope, the lead prosecutor at the time, told the Greenville News in South Carolina. “We thought that maybe a bad guy or a criminal could do something horrible like this. … We just don't expect that coming from a mother.’’

Pope pursued the death penalty, but Smith was sentenced in July 1995 to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years. She became eligible Nov. 4.

Family, prosecutors oppose parole

Pope, now the Republican speaker pro tem of the South Carolina House; Smith’s former husband, David Smith; and multiple other family members gave statements opposing Smith's parole application.

Pope said that after the trial, some jurors said they opted for a life sentence because they believed it would be a greater punishment than the death penalty and wanted Smith to spend the rest of her life reflecting on her crimes.

"I know one of your criteria is the nature of the crime and whether the punishment is there," Pope told the parole board. "For the crimes she committed, the actions she committed, that punishment has not been achieved yet."

David Smith, who spoke last while wearing a photo of his children on his lapel, asked the board to deny his ex-wife parole and pledged to return every two years to continue asking for her to remain in prison.

"This wasn't a tragic mistake. This wasn't something that she didn't mean to do. She purposely meant to end their life," he said. "I never have felt any remorse from her for it. She's never expressed any to me. I've never seen it on paper.

That testimony helped diminish Susan Smith’s chances, which were not great to begin with. Only 7% of South Carolina parole requests were granted in 2023, and the number has been trending down for years, the advocacy group Prison Policy Initiative said.

David Smith told Court TV in September he would attend the parole hearing, saying he would address the board “to let them know that her only doing 30 years would be an injustice to Mike and Alex.’’

Sixteenth Judicial Circuit Solicitor Kevin Brackett recalled Susan Smith's car getting pulled out of the water with her children inside after nine agonizing days of searching. Brackett said the crimes traumatized not only the family but the entire state.

“On behalf of the community that I represent now, I don’t believe she should ever be released from jail, until the last person alive who remembers Michael and Alex is dead, and that will not be in her lifetime. She should never be released," Brackett said Wednesday.

Smith's attorney says case is a 'mental health story'

Thomas said Smith's crime was not motivated by the affair, but by "multiple stress points" that converged at the same time, including severe depression stemming from the suicide of her father when she was a child and postpartum depression following the birth of her first child.

"It is a mental health story," Thomas said. "It's about the dangers of untreated mental health."

Smith said in an earlier statement read by Thomas that she did not understand the finality of her actions when she killed her children and that "it was truly a moment of insanity."

"I thought I was doing what was best for them. I knew Jesus would take better care of them than I could," Smith said.

Smith said Wednesday she didn't lie about her crimes because she wanted to get away with murder, but because she was afraid to admit the truth.

"I was just scared," Smith said, wiping her eyes. "I didn't know how I would tell the people that loved them they would never see them again."

Smith has been actively attending counseling and recovery programs while in prison including on grief, anger management, and domestic violence, according to Thomas. He said Smith has also helped "numerous" inmates obtain their GEDs, participated in a prison fellowship program and donated arts and crafts to charity.

Upon release, Thomas said Smith hopes to live a "quiet life." Thomas said he made arrangements for her to live with her brother and continue her mental health treatment if she was granted parole.

Black community was 'really on edge'

Smith’s trial began in July 1995, six months into Simpson’s “Trial of the Century’’ and three years after parts of Los Angeles burned during riots following the acquittal of the white police officers who beat Black driver Rodney King.

“The Black community was on edge. I mean, they were really on edge,” reporter Gary Henderson, who covered the case for the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, recently told the newspaper. “I think they were afraid that the white community was going to turn on them. It was a very touchy time for that.”

Pope acknowledged Smith had previously encountered serious hardships in her life but said he believes her actions were motivated by a desire to maintain the relationship with Findlay, and he often thinks about what would have happened if an innocent Black man had paid for her crimes.

“If we would've convicted the wrong person,’’ Pope said, “everybody involved would have to live with themselves knowing a man was in prison or died because of us.’’

Smith impacted by early hardships but not exemplary prisoner

The trial revealed the adversities Smith grappled with in her formative years, from her father’s suicide when she was a young girl to when her stepfather Beverley Russel, a leader in the Christian Coalition, starting to molest her when she was 15. Smith herself attempted suicide more than once.

But as she sought the votes she needed from the parole board to gain her release, Smith had a history of being far from a model prisoner.

She was disciplined twice in 2000 for having sex with prison guards and later sanctioned for several instances of drug use and self-mutilation. More recently, Smith drew the ire of prison officials for violating a policy by communicating with a documentarian who reportedly paid her.

“She's not focused on remorse for the lives she took,’’ Pope said. “I think she needs to continue to serve her sentence and serve it out forward.’’

When asked about these incidents by a member of the parole board, Smith said she is not guilty of the last infraction she was charged with but admitted she's made bad choices while incarcerated.

"The things I've been charged with in here have just been stupidity," she said. "I know I've made a lot of mistakes in here and I have learned from them."

Contributing: Terry Benjamin II, Greenville News

This article was updated to add a new video.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Susan Smith, who killed her toddlers 30 years ago, denied parole today