Preview The Shocking Story of Susan Smith
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Susan Smith, who has spent the last three decades behind bars for the drowning deaths of her two sons, reportedly plans to tout her mostly good conduct record at her first parole hearing.
"She believes she might be a free woman in less than two months," a relative told the New York Post. "She's hoping that [the hearing] will go her way. She's put all her hopes in that basket, and she's manifesting her freedom."
Smith intends to argue that she "has a different moral compass than other people because of her trauma" from growing up in a sexually abusive household, the relative told the Post.
"It really did a number on her," the relative said.
Susan Smith, pictured in a recent mugshot at left and at 22-year-old in 1994 at right, has been incarcerated in South Carolina for nearly 30 years for the murder of her two sons. (South Carolina Department of Corrections)
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Smith also plans to argue that she was suffering from a then-undiagnosed mental illness in 1994, when she let her car roll into John D. Long Lake in South Carolina with her two sons – 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander – trapped in their car seats.
The killer mom wrote in a 2015 letter to reporters at The State that she is "not the monster society thinks [she] is."
"Something went very wrong that night. I was not myself," Smith wrote. "There was no motive as it was not even a plan yet. I was not in my right mind."
During her trial, a defense psychologist diagnosed the then-22-year-old with dependent personality disorder (DPD), a disorder characterized by a "need for others to be responsible for the most important aspects of their life," according to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. People with DPD have "difficulty disagreeing with others because they fear the loss of support or approval."
Prosecutors had said Smith was driven to kill her boys a week after her ex-boyfriend and prospective affair partner, Tom Findlay, penned a letter about her sons being an obstacle.
KILLER MOM SUSAN SMITH'S ROMANCES SHOW 'HUMANS ARE DISPOSABLE' TO MURDERER HOPING FOR PAROLE: EXPERT
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 two boys still inside her vehicle, but her story unraveled, and the woman admitted that she let her vehicle roll into a lake with the boys strapped inside. (Getty Images)
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Smith's conduct record in prison is not unmarred – along with citations for drug possession and self-mutilation, Smith was disciplined for having sex with two prison guards in 2000.
Due to differing power dynamics, Smith has maintained that those relations were not consensual and that she was a victim. According to the New York Post, she told a friend in 2023 that she "had sex with them because [she] felt like [she] didn't have a choice."
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Previously, one of those prison guards told NewsNation that Smith should not be released.
"Her prison record shows just that... she's not really learned anything while being in prison, except how to do illegal things other than the killing of her sons," Alfred Rowe said.
The family member said that Smith will argue that she has turned her life around in prison. According to prison records obtained by Fox News Digital, she has not been disciplined since 2015 and has held down a steady job behind bars.
SUSAN SMITH, NEARING PAROLE AFTER MURDERS OF YOUNG SONS, SAYS SHE'D BE 'GOOD STEPMOM': REPORT
Michael Daniel Smith, 3, and his 14-month-old brother, Alexander Tyler Smith, are shown in a family photo. (Reuters)
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"She's grown into a mature woman," the relative told the Post. "And she thinks she can thrive outside of prison."
David Smith, the father of Smith's slain children, intends to oppose his ex-wife's release at her parole hearing, either in a written letter or in a speech to the parole board.
"I’m going to remind them what she did and who the victims were in this case," he told Court TV. "Certainly not her."
Susan Smith and her husband appeared on national television to plead for the return of their children after Smith claimed that a Black man had carjacked her and kidnapped the boys.
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However, after nine days, Smith confessed that she had drowned the boys herself.
She was convicted of murder but spared the death penalty, instead given life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.
"I think it’s time," she told one of her many jailhouse suitors earlier this year. "I’ve paid my debt. I deserve to be released. I’m no longer a danger to anyone. Just let me live my life."
