A South Carolina woman who admitted drowning her two sons 30 years ago was denied parole after her first hearing Wednesday.
Susan Smith, 53, was convicted of killing her sons by strapping them into car seats and letting the car roll into a lake. The 1994 case fascinated many people.
Smith, who has served 30 years in prison, apologized to the seven-person parole board for the killing and asked to be released.
“I know what I did was terrible,” she said. “And I would give anything to change it.”
The father of her children and the prosecutor in the case also spoke to the council, asking them to keep her behind bars.
David Smith, the boy’s father, told the parole board that 30 years in prison was not a severe enough punishment for Smith.
“That’s just 15 years for each child, her own child,” he said. “That alone is not enough.”
Prosecutors argued during the trial that Smith killed her three-year-old Michael and one-year-old Alex after a man she was having an affair with told her that her sons were the reason the couple were not together. have a future together.
Prosecutor Tommy Pope said Smith made a “horrible, terrible choice in choosing a man over her family”.
“Susan is always focused on Susan,” he said.
During the trial, Smith initially said she was carjacked late at night and that a man drove away in her car. While she publicly begged for the safe return of her sons, they were at the bottom of a nearby lake.
But she eventually confessed to the crime.
The defense lawyer said she had a mental breakdown and wanted to die with her children but abandoned the car at the last minute.
Smith was convicted of murder, but under South Carolina law at the time, she was eligible for a parole hearing every two years after serving 30 years in prison.
Smith would need two-thirds of the board members present to vote in her favor to be released, according to the state Department of Probation, Parole and Parole Services.
