Smith was found guilty back in 1995 for killing her two kids.
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman who killed her two young sons nearly 30 years ago, will appear before the Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services on Wednesday for parole consideration.
Smith is serving a life sentence at Leath Correctional Institution near Greenwood after having been convicted in July 1995 for the murder of her children.
The parole hearing will take place Wednesday morning in Columbia, marking the first time she has been eligible for parole since her incarceration. News19 will carry the event live on WLTX+, our streaming app for television.
Smith would have a chance to speak as well as those who are opposed to her release. Her ex-husband and the father of the children, David Smith, told CourtTV in September he plans on being at the hearing and will advocate strongly that she not be released.
Her crime shocked the nation when she confessed to strapping her sons — Michael, 3, and Alexander, 14 months — into her car and rolling it into John D. Long Lake in Union County in 1994. Initially, Smith claimed a Black man had carjacked her vehicle with the boys inside, a lie she maintained for nine days before admitting to the murders.
State Rep. Tommy Pope, who back then was a prosecutor and worked the Smith case, recalled the emotional weight of the investigation and trial. “You know every case is tragic in its own measure, and you know obviously the lives of two children, I think it was amplified by the 9 days Susan Smith kept asking for a return of the children, after asking people to find an African American carjacker, so it was difficult in that regard,” Pope said.
He does not believe Smith should be granted parole. “She has been continually focused on Susan, not on Michael and Alex, I think Susan’s remorseful, but remorseful that she’s in her circumstances—not remorseful for the pain she caused Michael and Alex, or equally importantly David Smith and his family.”
Pope said he does not expect her to be granted release.
Earlier this year, she faced internal disciplinary action for misusing prison communication systems. According to an incident report, Smith discussed conducting interviews or possibly filming a documentary. She was found guilty at an internal hearing on October 3 and lost her phone, tablet, and canteen privileges for 90 days.
