Killer mother Susan Smith’s prosecutor says she was meant to serve a life sentence

Thirty years after South Carolina killer mother Susan Smith was put behind bars for drowning her two toddler sons, she is going to seem on a jailhouse courtroom feed for her first parole listening to on Wednesday morning, making ready for her freedom.

“I consider the jury meant for her to serve a full life sentence,” Tommy Pope, the prosecutor who helped convict Smith in her case, advised Fox Information Digital. “They needed her to spend her life and regret for Michael and Alex and what she had completed, and he or she has time targeted on herself having intercourse with guards, and many others.”  

Pope, together with a former director of the South Carolina Division of Corrections and one in every of Smith’s former lovers spoke out in Fox Nation’s newest particular on the case and Smith’s time in jail, “Susan Smith, The Killer Mother: 30 Years Later.”

 WATCH “SUSAN SMITH, THE KILLER MOM: 30 YEARS LATER” ON FOX NATION

Authorized identification {photograph} of Susan Smith. She was convicted on July 22, 1995 of murdering her two sons, 3-year-old Michael Daniel Smith, born October 10, 1991, and 14-month-old Alexander Tyler Smith, born August 5, 1993. Susan Smith when she was first arrested in 1994.  (Picture by Brooks Kraft LLC/Sygma by way of Getty Pictures)

Susan Smith strapped her sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander Smith, into the again seat of her automobile and let it roll down a ramp into John D. Lengthy Lake in Union, South Carolina. (Tommy Pope)

The daddy of her slain sons and her ex-husband not too long ago advised Fox Carolina that he is “hoping with all [his] coronary heart that she would not get out.”  

“She’s at all times needed the highlight in some method… she at all times needed consideration, and he or she at all times tried to govern folks, and I do not assume she’s going to vary,” David Smith advised the outlet, including that he nonetheless misses his two boys. “I want I may’ve stopped it.”

David Smith and Tommy Pope will each be attending Wednesday’s parole listening to. 

“The South Carolina State Home has a greater probability of getting hit with a meteor tonight than Susan Smith could have at getting parole tomorrow,” Lawyer Eric Bland, who has represented victims of Alex Murdaugh, one other infamous South Carolina homicide case, advised Fox Information Digital on Tuesday.

“She by no means confirmed actual contrition for murdering her youngsters.”

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Bland stated Susan Smith contacted her ex-husband at one level during the last a number of months, asking him if he’d be prepared to not oppose her parole and to talk to different members of the family and see in the event that they too could be prepared to not oppose. 

“He was furious, like, ‘Are you out of your thoughts?’,” Bland added, noting that up till she reached out to her former husband, she may need had an opportunity of getting parole. “She’s delusional… It is his youngsters, you realize, and he misplaced them. I imply, the wound continues to be as uncooked as I am certain it was on the primary day that they have been murdered.”

Bland believes David Smith will object to his ex-wife’s parole when he attends her listening to on Wednesday. 

“He’ll testify as to how his life was altered due to this,” Bland stated. “He is by no means healed… It is on his thoughts each single minute of each single day.”

SUSAN SMITH’S EX-HUSBAND ‘STILL BROKEN’ 30 YEARS AFTER SONS’ MURDERS AS KILLER MOM UP FOR PAROLE, AUTHOR SAYS

Susan Smith prosecutor Tommy Pope through the 1995 trial (Tommy Pope)

Smith has not been capable of finding a single character witness to testify on her behalf, The NY Put up reported.

“Underneath regular circumstances… it has been 30 years… and oftentimes, victims’ households themselves say, ‘Look, has she served sufficient?’ You realize, we’re a really Christian state, so folks consider in forgiveness,” Bland stated. “No one I’ve spoken to… has ever had any sympathy for her by any means.”

Here’s a timeline, detailing the occasions main as much as, throughout and after Smith’s horrific crime all through her a long time in jail: 

Oct. 25, 1994

Susan Smith strapped her sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander Smith, into the again seat of her automobile and let it roll down a ramp into John D. Lengthy Lake in Union, South Carolina.

Smith, 22 on the time, watched because it took six minutes for water to fill the automobile, drown her boys and sink the automobile to the underside of the lake. 

She ran to a home close to John D. Lengthy Lake, falsely telling the householders {that a} “Black man” had stolen her automobile together with her two sons inside. The householders known as 911. 

EX-HUSBAND OF KILLER MOM SUSAN SMITH, UP FOR PAROLE, SAYS SHE CRAVES ATTENTION AND LIKELY HASN’T CHANGED

Toys and pics of Michael & Alex Smith at John D. Lengthy Lake shore shrine, web site of drowning homicide of two boys by their mother Susan Smith (she stated they have been kidnapped).     (Picture by William F. Campbell/Getty Pictures)

Oct. 26-Nov. 2, 1994 

For 9 days, the younger faces of Michael and Alexander Smith unfold throughout nationwide headlines, whereas authorities looked for the person Susan stated kidnapped the boys. Susan and David Smith pleaded on nationwide tv for the return of their youngsters. 

Pope watched the information unfold on the time and obtained updates from SLED on the case. 

“The entire story sounded extremely unlikely,” Pope stated within the Fox Nation particular, “By no means are you listening to a carjacker taking youngsters usually.”

Nov. 3, 1994

After failing a polygraph check, Susan Smith retracted her lie in regards to the kidnapping and confessed to killing her two sons. She was charged with two counts of homicide.

KILLER MOM SUSAN SMITH DISCIPLINED BEHIND BARS WEEKS BEFORE PAROLE HEARING

3 unident. legislation enforcement officers, 1 clad in scuba gear, speaking lakeside as they comb the water’s backside for the automobile of Susan Smith, who admitted to drowning her sons Michael & Alex in her automobile in John D. Lengthy Lake.     (Picture by Thomas S. England/Getty Pictures)

Nov. 6, 1994 

A whole lot attended the funeral of Michael and Alexander Smith. 

July 17, 1995 

Susan Smith’s trial started lower than a 12 months after she drowned her sons. Whereas prosecutors argued her motive for killing the boys was {that a} man she was seeing on the time did not need youngsters, Smith’s protection stated she was suicidal and initially deliberate to drown together with her sons earlier than in some way pulling herself out of it.

“I used to be very emotionally distraught. I did not wish to reside anymore! I felt like issues may by no means get any worse,” Smith wrote in her confession letter, obtained by Fox Information Digital. “I felt I could not be a very good mother anymore however I did not need my youngsters to develop up with out a mother. I felt I needed to finish our lives to guard us all from any grief or hurt.” 

KILLER MOM SUSAN SMITH THINKS PAROLE IS NOW UNLIKELY AFTER SHE WAS CAUGHT TRYING TO PROFIT OFF CASE: REPORT

“I needed to finish my life so unhealthy and was in my automobile able to go down that ramp into the water and I did go half manner, however I finished. I went once more and stopped…I dropped to the bottom after I allowed my youngsters to go down that ramp into the water with out me. I took off working and screaming ‘Oh God! Oh God, NO!’ What have I completed?”

July 22, 1995

Susan Smith was convicted within the homicide of her two sons, Michael and Alexander. 

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Susan Smith was convicted on July 22, 1995 of murdering her two sons, 3-year-old Michael Daniel Smith and 14-month-old Alexander Tyler Smith. Initially, Smith claimed {that a} Black man carjacked her with the 2 boys nonetheless inside her car. However her story unraveled, and the lady admitted that she let her car roll right into a lake with the boys strapped inside.  (Getty Pictures)

July 28, 1995

Although prosecutors argued that Susan Smith ought to obtain the dying penalty, she was finally sentenced to life in jail. 

Susan Smith advised a suitor over the telephone that she could be a “good stepmom” and will “see [herself] round youngsters” in a recorded telephone name. Grief-stricken David Smith, the inmate’s former husband, is pictured weeping amidst a crowd of mourners as he leaves funeral for his youngsters Michael and Alex. (Thomas S. England/Getty Pictures)

July, 1995-March, 2015 

Smith obtained 10 disciplinary sanctions, together with one for having intercourse with a jail guard and others for repeated drug use.

Aug. 26, 2024 and Oct. 3, 2024

Smith was charged on Aug. 26 and subsequently convicted on Oct. 3 for speaking with a sufferer/and or witness after talking to a documentary filmmaker. South Carolina Division of Corrections inmates are usually not allowed to do interviews on the phone or in particular person, in keeping with SCDC coverage, however they could write letters. Smith misplaced her phone, pill and canteen privileges for 90 days.

Susan Smith, pictured in a latest mugshot at left and at 22-year-old in 1994 at proper, has been incarcerated in South Carolina for almost 30 years for the homicide of her two sons. (South Carolina Division of Corrections)

In her talks with the filmmaker, Smith mentioned her crime in depth and the occasions main as much as and after it, together with particulars like “what was within the trunk of the automobile when it went into the water and her plans to leap from a bridge whereas holding the boys, however one awakened,” the incident report says.

Nov. 4, 2024 

On Nov. 4, Susan Smith had spent 30 years behind bars, making her eligible for parole. 

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Nov. 20, 2024

Smith will seem on a jailhouse courtroom feed for her first parole listening to on Nov. 20. 

It isn’t anticipated that the parole board will announce its determination throughout Wednesday’s listening to. The board will as a substitute launch its determination by way of web site announcement at a later time. 

Fox Information’ Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.