I remember very distinctly when Susan Smith first went in front of the cameras to claim her two young sons had been taken by a “black man” who had carjacked her and driven off with her boys still in the car. I remember it because my wife and I were visiting my parents in Iowa when the news broke, and I remember it because, at that first emotional press conference, in which Susan Smith begged for the return of her sons, both Mom and my wife said the same thing: “She’s lying.”
Mom summarized why they both thought she was lying: “The only way you would get me away from my children is to kill me.”
When Susan Smith was convicted, Mom and my wife remembered that conversation. They were right; Susan Smith was lying. And now, serving two consecutive life sentences for murdering her sons, Susan Smith has made an emotional appeal for parole.
Smith apologized for drowning her two young sons 30 years and and said she wished she could take it back.
But, true to form, Smith still refused to take full responsibility for her actions, blaming others for the choices she made.
The seven member South Carolina Board of Paroles immediately voted to deny Smith’s request. However, she will now be able to apply for parole every two years — meaning the family of her murdered sons, Alex and Michael, will have to show up to fight her request if they want to ensure she stays behind bars.
Smith has faced disciplinary action several times in prison, including two separate sexual encounters with corrections officers, incidents of self-harm, possession of marijuana — and most recently for giving contact information for family and her ex-husband to a documentary producer.
Susan Smith was denied parole. Good. Our justice system has all too frequently failed as of late, but this time they got it right.
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It’s difficult to look at a crime like this dispassionately. Few things evoke such anger and outrage as the murder of children, but the murder of children, toddlers at that, by their own mother is one of the most egregious, hateful crimes imaginable. Such crimes rightly draw not only justice, not only punishment, but also a level of retribution. Two life sentences seem like small payback for murdering one’s children, but that’s what the justice system has handed down – and Susan Smith should be required to serve every single day.
It seems that the murdering mother didn’t take the parole denial well.
After she was rejected, Smith returned to her jail cell. A prison employee tells The Post exclusively that she was angry and crying, and ranting about the hearing to her friends on the inside. “She was pissed,” the employee says.
Smith has spent 30 years in prison since receiving her life sentence for the 1994 incident. This is her first parole hearing.
She will be able to reapply for parole in November 2026.
Too bad. She did the crime, now she’s doing the time. She should be denied in 2026, as well, and in every such hearing until she dies where she belongs – in prison.
