The Story of Susan Smith

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Susan Leigh Smith (née Vaughan;born September 26, 1971) is an American woman who was convicted ofmurdering her two sons, three-year-old Michael and 14-month-oldAlexander, in 1994 by drowning them in a South Carolina lake.


The case gained international attentionbecause of Smith's false claim that a black man had kidnapped hersons during a carjacking. Her defense attorneys, David Bruck and JudyClarke, called expert witnesses to testify that she had mental healthissues that impaired her judgment when she committed the crimes.


Smith was sentenced to life in prisonwith the possibility of parole after 30 years. According to the SouthCarolina Department of Corrections, she will be eligible for paroleon November 4, 2024. She is incarcerated at the Leath CorrectionalInstitution near Greenwood, South Carolina.


Family background


Smith rarely had a stable home lifegrowing up. Her father committed suicide when she was six years old,and Smith herself attempted suicide at age 13. Her mother thenmarried Beverly Russell, a member of the local chapter of theChristian Coalition, who later was revealed to have molested Smithwhen she was a teenager. One newspaper claimed that sexual relationsbetween them had continued until six months before the murders.


After graduating from high school in1989, Smith made a second attempt to kill herself after a married manshe was in a relationship with ended their affair. She married DavidSmith, and they had two sons. The relationship was rocky due tomutual allegations of infidelity, and they separated several times.


Crimes


On October 25, 1994, Smith reported topolice that her vehicle had been carjacked by a black man who droveaway with her sons still inside. For nine days, she made dramaticpleas on national television for their safe return. However,following an intensive investigation and a nationwide search forthem, she confessed on November 3, 1994, to letting her car roll intonearby John D. Long Lake, drowning them inside. Her motivation wasreportedly to facilitate a relationship with a local wealthy mannamed Tom Findlay. Prior to the murders he sent Smith a letter endingtheir relationship and expressing that he did not want children. Shesaid that there was no motive nor did she plan the murders, statingthat she was not in a right state of mind.


Later investigation revealed thatdetectives doubted Smith's story from the start and believed that shemurdered her sons. By the second day of the investigation, the policesuspected that she knew their location and hoped that they were stillalive. Investigators started to search the nearby lakes and ponds,including John D. Long Lake, where their bodies were eventuallyfound. Initial water searches did not locate the car because thepolice believed it would be within 30 feet of the shore, and did notsearch farther; it turned out to be 122 feet from the shore. Afterthe boys had been missing for two days, Susan and David weresubjected to a polygraph test. The biggest breakthrough of the casewas her description of the carjacking location. She had claimed thata traffic light had turned red causing her to stop at an otherwiseempty intersection. However, it was determined that the light wouldnot have turned red for her unless a vehicle was present on theintersecting road. This conflicted with her statement that she didnot see any other cars there when the carjacking took place.


Trial


In 1995, David Bruck and Judy Clarkeserved as co-counsel for Smith. In their opening statement, Clarkeargued Smith was deeply troubled and experienced severe depression.Clarke told the jury: "This is not a case about evil. This isa case about despair and sadness." The defense's theory ofthe case was that Smith drove to the edge of the lake to kill herselfand her two sons, but her body willed itself out of the car. Theprosecution, on the other hand, believed she murdered her sons inorder to start a new life with a former lover. It took the jury onlytwo and a half hours to convict her of murdering them. During thepenalty phase, Tommy Pope, the lead prosecutor in the Smith case,argued passionately in favor of sentencing Smith to death. The juryultimately voted against imposing the death penalty. Smith's defensepsychiatrist diagnosed her with dependent personality disorder andmajor depression.


Incarceration


Smith was incarcerated in theAdministrative Segregation Unit in the Camille Griffin GrahamCorrectional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina.


During Smith's incarceration at theCamille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution, two correctionalofficers, Lieutenant Houston Cagle and Captain Alfred R. Rowe Jr.,were charged after having sex with her. Consequently, she was movedto the Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood.


She will be eligible for parole inNovember 2024.


In popular culture


The season three premiere of ArrestedDevelopment ("The Cabin Show") features a flashbackscene in which Lucille Bluth (Jessica Walter), having recently goneoff her postpartum medication, is watching a news story about Smith,to which she replies "Good for her!"— much to theconcern of her son Buster (Tony Hale). The end of the episodefeatures Lucille walking away from her car, with Buster asleep in theback seat as it rolls into a nearby body of water.


Blind Melon's song "Car Seat(God's Presents)", from their 1995 Soup album, was inspiredby the Susan Smith murders, as was the Tom House song "I'm inlove with Susan Smith". The song "When This isOver", on Hayden's 1995 album "Everything I LongFor" is written from the point of view of one of SusanSmith's sons as the car sinks into the lake.


Smith appears briefly in archivalfootage in the 2002 film Bowling for Columbine in a scene about"dangerous black guys".


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