Susan Smith is on parole for 30 years after drowning her children in a South Carolina lake

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Susan Smith will be released on parole next month, nearly 30 years after she was convicted of rolling her car into a South Carolina lake and drowning her two sons who were strapped into their car seats.

Smith, 53, is serving a life sentence after a jury decided not to sentence her to death in her 1995 murder case. Under the law at the time, she is eligible to seek her release after serving 30 years in prison.

Smith’s hearing is scheduled for Nov. 20, the Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services said Monday. Hearings are being held virtually in South Carolina, with the inmate participating via video call from jail.

In South Carolina, parole is granted only about 8% of the time, and that is less likely when an inmate is making his first court appearance, in notorious cases or when prosecutors and victims’ families resist. Smith falls into all of these categories.

“The jury felt she had received a life sentence and that is what she should serve,” said Tommy Pope, the lead prosecutor in Smith’s trial and now the Republican Speaker Pro Tem of the South Carolina House.

“Secondly, I would point to her behavior in prison to unfortunately demonstrate what one juror hoped would happen: that she would be remorseful and think of those children. She has proven that all she thinks about is Susan Smith,” Pope said.

Smith made international headlines in October 1994 when she said she was carjacked late at night near the town of Union and a man drove away with her sons inside. Smith, who is white, said the carjacker was black.

For nine days, Smith made numerous and sometimes tearful pleas asking for three-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex to be returned safely.

But the entire time, the boys and Smith’s car were at the bottom of nearby John D. Long Lake, authorities said.

Investigators said Smith’s story did not add up. Carjackers usually just want a vehicle, so investigators wondered why they would release Smith but not her children. The traffic light where Smith said she stopped when her car was seized would only be red if there was another car waiting to cross and Smith said there were no other cars around. And other bits and pieces of the story didn’t add up.

Smith admitted to rolling her car off a boat ramp into the lake. A reconstruction by investigators showed that it took six minutes for the Mazda to dive below the surface of the water, while cameras inside the vehicle showed water pouring in through the vents and steadily rising. The boys’ bodies were found dangling upside down in their car seats, with one small hand pressed against a window.

Prosecutors said Smith had an affair with the wealthy son of the owner of the company where she worked. He ended it because she had two young sons, and Smith decided that was how she would solve that problem.

Prosecutors sought the death penalty and the young mother’s trial became a national sensation and a true crime touchstone, even though it was not televised by a judge concerned about what cameras were doing to the OJ Simpson murder trial that was taking place at the same time . A jury convicted Smith, but decided she did not deserve the death penalty.

Smith’s lawyers said she was remorseful, had a nervous breakdown and planned to die with her children, but left the car at the last minute.

Smith’s thirty years in prison were also eventful. South Carolina prison rules do not allow interviews, but Smith has regularly written to reporters, true crime enthusiasts and potential suitors who then talk publicly about the letters.

She tried unsuccessfully to appeal her conviction, saying her husband David Smith had abused her. He adamantly denied this and authorities said there was no evidence.

‘Over the next thirty years – again, it’s hard to believe it happened so quickly – she had sex with guards. She pays attention to her options on social media. She has sugar daddies who can’t wait for her release and are helping support her,” Pope said.

Pope said David Smith plans to join him in opposing his ex-wife’s parole.

In an interview with Court TV, David Smith said he struggles to remember his sons. He said that although he has forgiven Susan Smith, that does not change the fact that she murdered their children and spent more than 30 years in prison for it.

“You have no idea how much damage you have caused to so many people,” David Smith said in the Court TV interview. “I will do everything within my power to ensure that you remain behind bars.”

Pope plans to tell the parole board that when jurors rejected the death penalty, they thought a life sentence meant the rest of her life and did not think she could be released after just 30 years.

Pope expects Susan Smith to make her own case before the parole board. He thinks she will try to use the same sympathy and effort to believe that a mother would do something like that to her children to convince the board to grant her parole.

“She has been rehearsing what she will say to the parole board for 30 years,” Pope said.

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