Susan Smith gets emotional speaking to parole board

(CNN) — Susan Smith, who has served 30 years of a life sentence for drowning her two young sons in 1994, was unanimously denied parole by the South Carolina Board of Paroles and Pardons during an emotional hearing Wednesday.

Smith testified on her own behalf, 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 Union County 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 included statements from witnesses opposing parole, including David Smith, her ex-husband and the father of the boys.

“I’m not here to speak about what she’s done in prison. You all have the records and accounts of all that. I’m just here to advocate on Michael’s and Alex’s behalf and as their father,” said Smith, who was flanked by 14 other witnesses – many wearing buttons with a picture of Michael and Alex – opposing his ex-wife’s release.

“God gives us free choice, and she made free choice that night to end their lives. This wasn’t a tragic mistake. She purposely meant to end their lives. I never have felt any remorse from her. She never expressed any to me,” he added.

Smith said he questioned whether he could go on after Susan Smith killed their sons.

“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,” he said.

Ultimately, the father of the boys told the parole board that 30 years is simply not enough time for Susan Smith to spend in prison.

“That’s only 15 years per child, her own children,” he said. “It’s just not enough.”

At a news conference after the hearing, David Smith told reporters the committee made the right decision.

How we got here

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, 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.

The prosecution pointed to reports Smith was having an affair with her boss’ rich son who had just broken up with her because he didn’t want children. Her attorneys argued she was suicidal and depressed and intended to stay in the car with her children.

Smith was convicted of murder. Now 53, she has served 30 years of her life sentence, making her eligible for parole.

Parole is granted only for violent offenders about 8% of the time, according to the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services.

As of the first week of November, the Office of Victim Services had received at least 360 letters, emails and messages about Smith’s parole hearing, with all but six opposing granting her parole, the department said.

Smith’s attorney, Tommy A. Thomas, did not respond to a request for comment before or after the hearing. He told the board Wednesday his client was “truly remorseful.”

Smith’s three decades in prison haven’t been uneventful. She has faced a number of internal disciplinary charges.

Just months before her parole hearing, on August 16, Smith was charged with “communicating with a victim and/or witness” through telephone calls with a documentary filmmaker, according to the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

Inmates in South Carolina are allowed to receive and send letters but cannot legally communicate with journalists in person or on the phone. CNN has sent a letter to Smith in prison seeking comment – but has not received a response.

Smith and the filmmaker discussed shooting the documentary after the parole hearing and how she would be paid for her participation, according to an incident report.

“They also discussed in depth the crime and the events leading up to and after it actually took place,” the report states. “Including such details as to what was in the trunk of the car when it went into the water and her plans to jump from a bridge while holding the boys but one woke up.”

The department said Smith agreed to provide the filmmaker with contact information for friends, family and her former husband. Money was then placed in her prison account, the department said. As a result, Smith lost her telephone, tablet and canteen privileges for 90 days, according to the department.

Prosecutors initially sought death penalty

Smith was eligible to apply for parole because the jury at her trial in 1995 declined to hand down the death penalty prosecutors had sought.

“I thought the most stringent punishment we had would be the most appropriate punishment,” Tommy Pope, a former 16th Judicial Circuit solicitor who was the lead prosecutor on Smith’s case, said before the hearing.

“The jury showed her mercy, the jury gave her a life sentence, but the jurors after the fact, in speaking to the media, said that they believed the life sentence was the greater punishment, because they believed that Susan should have to reflect on what she did to Michael and Alex, that she should have to spend the rest of her life thinking about what she done,” Pope said when he spoke before the parole board Wednesday.

But this hasn’t been the case, said Pope.

“Susan has always focused on Susan,” Pope said. “So the evidence that you have before you, I think, tells clearly that she has not focused on Michael and Alex. She only has and continues to focus on herself.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Dakin Andone contributed to this report.

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