Susan Smith, who killed her 2 young children 30 years ago, denied parole [View all]

[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.

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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