Parole denied for SC mother Susan Smith, convicted of murdering her 2 sons 30 years ago
COLUMBIA — The state parole board denied parole for Susan Smith, a mother convicted of murdering her two young sons three decades ago in South Carolina’s Upstate.
On Oct. 25, 1994, Smith left her sons — 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex — buckled in their car seats and rolled her car into John D. Long Lake in Union County.
“I just want to say how very sorry I am,” Smith said sobbing, her head in her hands. “I know that what I did was horrible, and I would give anything if I could go back and change it.”
The high-profile case garnered national attention when Smith, for nine days, claimed a Black man carjacked her and drove off with her sons. She tearfully pleaded on national television for their return, before eventually admitting to investigators what she had done.
The decision to deny was unanimous, though one of the six board members did not vote. Geraldine Miro, a former warden in the prison where Smith was originally housed, recused herself.
The board cited the violent nature of the crime and Smith’s behavior in prison in their denial.
Most recently, Smith was disciplined for speaking with a documentary filmmaker about her crimes, according to a report provided by the Department of Corrections.
The prisons agency does not allow inmates to do media interviews by phone or in person. Inmates may only write letters, as per a policy upheld last month by a federal judge.
In those conversations, she agreed to provide contact information of friends, family and victims, including her former husband and father of her sons. Inmates cannot communicate “directly or indirectly” or “through a third party, in any form” with victims’ family or friends, the report said.
It marked her first disciplinary issue in nearly 10 years. Other past offenses were related to drugs and mutilation.
In 2010, she lost canteen, phone and visitation privileges for an entire year — 365 days — for drug use. Online inmate reports don’t show sanctions before 2009.
Fifteen people, including Smith’s ex-husband David Smith and state Speaker Pro Tem Tommy Pope — who was the chief prosecutor in the case — testified in opposition.
The group of family, friends and law enforcement all wore a photo of the boys pinned to their shirts.
“I’m just here to advocate for Michael and Alex as their father,” David Smith told the board. “She (Susan) made a free choice that night to end their life. It was no tragic mistake.”
The grief also made him contemplate his own suicide at times, he told the board.
The boys’ father has remarried and started a new family. He vowed to return every two years to oppose his ex-wife’s parole, so his sons’ deaths are “not in vain.” She is next eligible in 2026.
Jessica Holdman writes about the economy, workforce and higher education. Before joining the SC Daily Gazette, she was a business reporter for The Post and Courier.
SC Daily Gazette is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
