Notorious Child Killer Susan Smith Up for Parole: ‘I’d Be a Good Stepmom’

Whoever has my children that they please I mean please bring them home that was Susan Smith in October 1994 begging for the safe return of her two young sons who had turned out she murdered now Smith's coming up for parole and the prosecutor who put her in prison is here to say whether or not he believes she should be released thanks for joining me for Crime fix I'm Anette Levy the case of Susan Smith and her missing Sons captured the attention of the nation this was back of course before everyone had a cell phone it was before social media and the search for Smith's two sons three-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander was the top story on the national news for days Smith called police in Union South Carolina and claimed a black man carjacked her and took the car with her two little boys in the back seat as you saw Smith went on National Television begging for the carjacker to bring back her children but the entire time little Michael and Alexander those poor defenseless little boys were strapped in their car seats they were dead in the backseat of their mother's car that she had let roll into the bottom of John D long Lake a jury found Smith guilty but opted to send her to prison for life instead of giving her the death penalty later this year Susan Smith will be up for parole because at the time she was sentenced life didn't mean life she would be eligible for parole after serving just 30 years since she's been in prison Susan Smith has been in some trouble she's been caught using drugs she's had sexual relationships including one with a prison guard she's lost phone and canteen privileges a number of times but hasn't been in trouble since about 2015 one thing that I think is important to note Susan Smith has been in prisoned for almost 30 years and she has not earned one Educational Credit not one but she has spent a lot of time talking to people who want to date her the now defunct Outlet the messenger reported last year that Smith told one man that she thought she'd be a good stepmom and that man was quoted as saying back to her you'd be great babe prosecutors argued at trial that Susan Smith killed her sons because a man she was having an affair with told her in a letter that he didn't want children Smith meanwhile claimed she had a psychotic breakdown and had garnered some sympathy because her stepfather had sexually abused her as a te teenager joining me is somebody who knows more about Susan Smith's case than anybody he's Tommy Pope he prosecuted Susan Smith and put her in prison Tommy thanks for coming on um take me back yeah thank you uh take me back to 1994 and getting that call that these two little boys were missing sure so I was the elected solicitor that's our district attorney here in South Carolina I had two uh counties I had York which was my larger more affluent County and then Union County which was my smaller County uh we would have court about once a month in in Union and it really it was just kind of a small you know kind of population decreasing M toown you know the textiles had kind of moved out and so uh I had been elected let's see I got elected 92 so I'd been elected just a few years I was 30 let's see 30 years old when I got elected um always laughed I said I got elected really to tackle the backlog our our circuit had the worst backlog in the state and I said I don't know people saw Merit in me but thought I couldn't do any worse than the other guy because we had the worst backlog the state so I got elected in ' 92 and was really kind of focusing on on dealing with the backlog and again Union was smaller it didn't really ever have a problem um actually when this case came up you know the initial report of the carjacker I've been a law enforcement officer before I'd worked at the South Carolina law enforcement Division and so when I heard the carjacker story it just didn't really Jive I was staying in touch with the sled agents they would call me I was actually in trial over in York County I tell people I was doing the Lord's work I was uh Prosecuting the preacher who had embezzled from the daycare center so I was I was doing the heavy lifting over there but I got a call most nights on the way the investigation was going I think it went like nine days with Susan pleading to the media and and all this yeah and then I remember I had just finished that case and I got a call that um that the boys had been located in John D long lake so I got in the car and went down to John D long Lake that night when you get to the lake and you see that vehicle pulled out of the water and these these poor little boys I mean these are the most defenseless I mean 14 months three years old right they're in their car seats and they've been placed in Lake by their mother most the most defenseless of victims I I just can't even imagine yeah it you know it's I mean I've been to In in my law enforcement career and in my prosecution career I've been to a lot of crime scenes and I went there intentionally because you know we' all already kind of dealt with the the nine days media pressure so you knew it was going to be OJ Simpson was going on at the time and this was you know i' had a lot of you know big cases but media wise this one you know Susan Smith herself had kind of drawn it along you know crying about the babies and needing help so I went down for one obviously to to see what was occurring but two so that later on if I got tired or I got worn out and you know didn't want to proceed I'd remember what it was about and so what I saw that night was a car pulled out with the two boys still in the car seats I saw grown men crying um and and again I think it was as much of of the tragedy as the Heartbreak because people been searching for those kids that people been searching for those carjackers working working working hoping to recover those kids and then to see it come to that it it was it was devastating I always remember because I had a young son at the time the difficulty we go through as parents swapping those car seats I'm GNA take them out of my car and put them in your car and then we're going to get the kids in and you know it's really a lot of work to keep safe and I did see kind of some raw irony that you know the very devices that are they supposed to protect them ultimately with the Implements of their death yeah um you know little Michael three years old Alexander 14 months you know their father believed this story that a black man had carjacked uh his wife and kidnapped the children taking the vehicle maybe didn't want to kidnap children but had certainly taken the G vehicle and the one thing that gets me and I remember this I remember this very vividly I mean I remember this this was back before the internet really before social media this was a huge story this was on the news every night and people were just like my god um you know I they I hope they find these children I think a red flag though is this whole story about you know a black man uh carjacked me stole my car and took my children I feel like and whenever I hear that you know I've I've heard that over and over in other cases too it almost takes me back to like to Kill a Mocking Bird it sounds so absurd um was that in any way a red flag for you with this case well and initially um I really thought like I said I was in trial in the other case but I I wasn't I mean not that I didn't care about the kids being returned but I wasn't overly concerned that what she was saying happened had really happened I actually thought perhaps it some type of domestic situation you know she was arranged from her husband a little bit maybe she hides the kids out with her cousin you know down at Myrtle Beach or something like that you know to create some drama um because from a law enforcement standpoint there's a reason you call them a car Jacker you know it's not a woman Jacker a b you that's a kidnapper you know it's not a baby Jacker it's their hierarchy is they're normally looking for the car then they may be looking for money then maybe a female to assault so it's so far down the line that that you know then when she tells their story that he tells he stops long enough for her to get out but says I don't have time to let the kids out makes no sense you know like you said you've heard other cases where inadvertently you know I steal your car not realizing the baby's asleep in the back you know you've seen some cases like that and very often those cases they put the baby out at the the gas station or something and you know take off with the car so uh it really wasn't over concerning I don't think it really hit home until we found the boys to realize that this was much bigger in a horrible horrible way than we ever thought when did you all realize or when did the sled agents realize that maybe Susan was not being honest about what had happened you know in a strange twist and like you said back then you know we didn't have all the different new sources as we can but she was drawn from the beginning um to the opportunity and the attention of being on the media I remember I had raw footage from um Channel 7 out of Spartanburg that was the first people on the scene to the house she went to they had called David to come to the scene and they're about to do the video the camera lights are off that was back in the old days when you had a big boy like me carrying the cameras and then he had the anchor person doing the work so so um the lady the acre person says something to the effect so David and Susan are standing in front of them ready for the camera and she says okay you know when the lights come on then I'm gonna ask you you know your name and then what happened whatever right before the lights come on Susan looks at David and kind of Giggles like it's exciting like they're gonna be on TV you know what I mean and and of course poor David looks like like a deer in the headlights he looks like a guy who was just told your kids have been stolen and so going through it there were always kind of little instances but I was going to say the media intensity um you know because ultimately she was on every National media you know interviewed like the Today Show and all that stuff and she was fine when she was getting the accolades and the and the sympathy um when they started questioning her a little bit she started you know cracking that's from a and so I think that media pressure helped and then there were just slowly inconsistencies the other thing is law enforcement always runs a dual investigation if you tell me an alien took your child then I'm going to go work on the alien case too but I'm also going to check the logical things like family members and so it it you know sometimes people say that's offensive but you have to check out the victim's family too to kind of check that off the list fortunately they kept that working and ultimately it proved they were looking in the right spot you saw the death penalty um but she ended up getting life so do you know do you have any inkling as to why why that was I mean I I I'm not asking you to make a statement on you know the morality of the death penalty or anything like that but I mean this is a very heinous case and I I know there was a lot out there at the time about uh the fact that I think Susan's stepfather had been engaged in some type of sexual relationship with her she she may have been a victim of sexual abuse but there was some also some questions about I don't know if it was consensual and if it was continuing I mean I that's a whole different kind of conversation so this this is a woman who's got some major issues yes and so I'll give you kind of kind of my view because it's funny you know um OJ was going on OJ started before it ended after and we got a lot of credit South Carolina as a whole because they think anybody with an accent like this you know it's going to be like Dukes a hazard or something that you know when we try a case and so you know we we had a tight window and and and the case went well um as far as the death penalty itself and I know you said you're not you know trying to get too deep I always said you know the defense David Brook they did a tremendous job their whole goal is to make sure it is not the death penalty you know that's they do death penalty defense all the time and I always say I'm not the yin to their Yang I don't wake up you know bloodthirsty every morning going who can I execute you know I I just view it more almost like a military officer if we have the death penalty in South Carolina and I I do believe in the death penalty but if we have it then you got to have people with the courage and the strength to work to apply it well in this circumstance I tried to treat Susan the same way I think anybody else should have been treated in that circumstance if we didn't have the death penalty whatever the the most stringent penalty was you know whatever we would have had that's what she deserved I also thought if the black man had done it they would have run me out of office if I didn't seek the death penalty if David Smith hadn't done had have committed the crime same deal so I just thought Susan needed to be treated in in the same manner the the difficulty there is it makes people uncomfortable to think one a mother would do that two somebody that looks like our coworker our sister you know it's almost easier for us to accept if it is the bad guy because you can figure out how it won't happen to you and I because every day I left work my wife was home with with our child you know and I never feared for my child's life so um that was a reason that in my time with David Smith you know convinced me that going forward even though it been easier to kind of pull the plug and not seek the death penalty going forward was you know the right move from the jury themselves one back then until 1996 um jurors were not told that life did not mean life in 1996 in South Carolina it started meaning you know if you got a life sentence you served life um back then it was parole eligibility for 30 years and that's hence we're talking about it now 30 years later so many of the jurors thought that if she was in jail she would be remorseful think about the boys and that life sentence would be you know more appropriate if she was remorseful maybe I'd agree but you've seen from her contact in prison you know sex with guards and other thing that she's been focused on Susan you know not that the second thing I'd say and again I give the defense credit um we did not change venue we stayed in Union County for the jury and and pretty much everybody knows everybody so there was also the component if I if I give your loved one the death penalty I'm going to see you at the grocery store you know later and I think that put some pressure on jurors too you mentioned her conduct in prison and and you know prison's supposed to be about Rehabilitation and that that's a whole another conversation too I mean sometimes people are just kind of warehoused and sometimes they get better sometimes they get worse but it's also up to them to you know take part in some programming or something to to better themselves and and you're right she's gotten in trouble with with for having sex with a prison guard um you know I think she's had some other relationships when she's been in there maybe with some inmates uh she's having she has suitors in there you know she has people in there she's having these conversations on her tablet or what have you and uh I think I read one where the guy said that she'd be a great mom you know you'd be a great mom babe you know and I just can't even imagine that like I I think Susan Smith needs to be kept as far away from children as humanly possible um I mean are are you going to oppose her her release when she comes up for parole because I I can't imagine I I'm not seeing many signs she hasn't gotten into big trouble recently but I'm not seeing many signs that show me that there's been a whole lot of Rehabilitation here I think you you assessed it well I I think you know if you look at a record over the 30 years I mean I've seen much much worse you know Behavior wise assaults on the guards you know Contraband things of that nature um I I think to me her her behavior is a reflection of who she is which is really Susan's always been about Susan I mean all the way even going back to you know laughing about we're going to be on TV or the sled agent taking her to the polygraph and her flirting with them saying um it's a beautiful day I wish you and I were riding to the beach instead of doing this or you know she's just I mean it's the way she's wired she's always been about how things affect her I mean and nothing more telling than you know what happened with the the kids but um so I am try not to be vindictive about parole but I try to kind of call it the way I see it and so normally what I tell the parole board is I believe in truth and sentencing um the jury gave her life under the belief she would be serving in life and that that's what she needs to do um it'll be interesting I assume we'll hear from David Smith I always tell people you know ultimately cameras where excluded from the courtroom and you're kind of darned if you do darned if you don't if you're a prosecutor if I act like I want cameras then it's because I'm a glory Hound if I act like I don't then I've got something to hide but in this circumstance I said selfishly the only thing I wish everybody in the country everybody in the world could have seen David Smith's testimony because you know by the time we got ready to try we were ready right after the first of the year this happened kind of around Halloween and the defense said they needed more time and what they did they kind of worked the public opinion and that's when you started hearing Susan the victim you know was the victim of The Stepfather the victim of the husband the victim of the boyfriend or whatever and so by the time we get around to trial I was having people question why I was even trying poor Susan and I always said when David Smith took the stand in the penalty phase of death penalty case what I would always do is basically bring the victims back to life in other words I would talk about the the good times you know when he David talked about Michael couldn't say uh Dalmatian he liked 101 diametr you know and he would tell stories tell story about take them to the park tell stories sadly or ironically how the boys didn't like to take bath they didn't like to get wet which was you know odd in and of itself but by the time David got through I would then take him basically I bring bring the loved ones alive and then go to their death again and so David went through that whole range of emotions and I said if anybody could have seen that man testify because you know it would have been easier for him to walk away too but if anybody could have seen David Smith testified they'd know why we were in that courtroom that day yeah most definitely um what a horrible case uh Tommy Pope we will keep an eye on it and see what happens at that hearing in November thank you so much for coming on we appreciate it absolutely absolutely thank you for your time today and that's it for this episode of crime fix I'm Anette Levy thanks for being with us we'll see you back here next time

Channel: Law&Crime Network

Views: 380,837

Keywords: law and crime, law and crime network, true crime, truecrime, true crime videos, court, trials, law&crime

Id: SLSSTU0Pgeg

Length: 20min 6sec (1206 seconds)

Published: Mon May 27 2024