It doesn't seem like 15 years ago,does it? David Smith,the husband of Susan and father of Michael and Alexender has given an interview to this weeks People Magazine [Sandra Bullock is on the cover April 5,2010]
While unbelievably sad,he has managed to keep going with life and is preparing a sequel to his book,"Beyond All Reson:My Life With Susan Smith." They have a small update on Susan too,but I won't go into that unless someone wants to talk about her.
Susan Vaughan Smith of Union, S.C. was convicted on July 22, 1995, and sentenced to life in prison for murdering her two sons, Michael Daniel Smith, 3, and 14-month-old Alexander Tyler Smith.
I am interested in this case Anna, did Susan get life without parole or the death penalty i would like to know more about it, thanks
Ohhhh I remember this so well. I remember crying when I saw Susan on tv pleading for her children's safe return, I remember my heart breaking for her, wishing so badly I could help her.
I also remember being in absolute shock, so much so that I literally couldn't speak, when the news reported that she was the one who had in fact killed her children, and exactly how she did it. I remember thinking to myself no way, no mother could do that. I have always wondered about the kid's father, and how his life has been since.
Susan was sent to the big house and will be eligible for parole in 2024, after she serves 30 yrs.
Seems she never has stopped "looking for her prince charming." She was caught having sex with two prison guards, and had a personal ad on writeaprisoner.com
Some people are going to take offense to this post, but in some ways, I feel sorry for her. What she did was reprehensible, I have five children that I love heart and soul and would die for - anyone that knows me, knows that my children, my family is/are my life plain and simple. But there have been times in my life that I felt like she did - not with hurtful intentions towards my children but feeling as though a part of you were missing, a part that somehow no matter what you do, something feels like it's missing - that "true love" that we all look for is really so much more than that. It's true acceptance, trust, it's someone loving you so much that they'd die for you. Unlike Susan, I realized before it was too late that what I had always searched for, what I had ached for, dreamed of and wanted almost more than my own breath was right in front of me the entire time. Women don't get these types of feelings without something significant happening to them in their childhood or early adulthood. I was severely abused as a child and teenager so I know where my insecurities came from and if I remember correctly Susan was either abused and/or her parents divorced in her early years. If her father wasn't around when she was younger, as she got older she'd look for someone to fill that role and she'd look over and over. So many different problems come to children of single parent homes that it's not even funny. and before I get flooded with emails, I'm not cutting down single family homes or single parents. Anna herself raised her daughter on her own and I applaud her for that but most of the time, children from single parent homes often suffer emotional setbacks that children in two parent homes don't have. Anyway, I'm violating my own TOS by going off topic - the point was that in some ways - I know how she felt in respect to her state of mind regarding looking for love so to speak. If she would have gotten help, she would have seen that what she'd been looking for was right there in front of her nose and none of this would have happened. That said, the hag should stay in prison for life not out in 30 years ... somethings wrong with that if you ask me!
I have a hard time feeling sorry for Susan,even though everything Jill has said is true. She was in a sexual relationship with her step-father in her teens,and devestated by the loss of her biological father when she was very young. Not saying this is why she did it but it obviously was very traumatic for her.
Being a Mom too,I have thought about this alot.Mostly in a "How could you?" kind of way.I hope she's getting therapy in there because if she gets out,she's going to need it. I don't think she should be parole elegible,but that's just my opinion.
I don't feel sorry for her. Nothing against Jill, but I'm so sick and tired of using abuse as a way to explain what someone does. There are many of us who go thru abuse, absent or neglectful parents, who do not receive the help we should, and we manage to not murder our precious children and screw up our entire lives over it.
I can't count the number of times I've heard this reason used to explain why someone commited such horrific acts against another person. 'Well, she was sexually abused." "Well, his dad was never around." You suck it up, because life isn't always fair, it's not always hearts and sunshine and flowers. Just because Susan Smith's life was so hard and awful (and I know it was) doesn't give her the right to do what she did (and I know Jill wasn't saying that it did.) If anything, I would think that would have motivated Susan even more to make sure her children had a better life than she did. In the end she put her own selfish needs ahead of her children. She knew what she was doing, she knew it was wrong, but she did it anyway. I agree with Anna, I don't think she should be eligible for parole. In fact, I think she should have gotten the death penalty I think too often the abuse tactic and insantiy defense are used. Instead of owning up to their mistakes, and facing the consequences, too often, people want to try and find excuses for their misguided behavior. It's easier to do the wrong thing and try to worm your way out of it than to do the right thing.
I honestly do not believe it is fair to those poor kids she murdered that she is eligible for parole at any time. That sentence was completely inappropriate,and her behavior later [having sex with two prison guards] proves she is a complete sociopath. I honestly don't believe she can be reformed.
I agree Anna. I think she's too messed up in the head, and most prisons, or facilities where inmates with severe psychological problems are sent are too inadequate to deal with those problems.
Seriously though,being a Mom gives you the instinct to protect your child beyond all means. I honestly think everything that happened to her screwed her up in the head beyond fixing.
By member request,I'm posting this link. We've had some people bring the noise on Susan and if you read some of the other threads and posts, Susan is seen as a very selfish and hateful monster. Personally, I think she's extremely disturbed and belongs exactly where she is. At one point, I thought she deserved the DP but I'm not so sure now, since the DP hasn't done much to serve as a deterrent to crime and we aren't doing such a hot job on making it work.
In a letter to a reporter at the State newspaper in January 2015, she tries to explain that she, "is not the monster everyone thinks she is," and that "something went very very wrong that night."
