Almost 30 years after Susan Smith was convicted of drowning her two sons when she drove her car into a South Carolina lake, she asked a parole board to release her from prison on Wednesday.
David Smith, her ex-husband, told TODAY he opposes her release, and that he doesn’t feel she is sorry for what she did to their two sons, Michael and Alex Smith.
“I just want to tell that parole board that they can’t let her out — 30 years, it’s just not enough,” he said. “I mean, this wasn’t an accident, a tragic event where she didn’t mean to do it. She deliberately killed Michael and Alex.”
Susan Smith made headlines on Oct. 25, 1994, when she reported a Black man had carjacked her vehicle with her two sons inside in Union, South Carolina. For nine days she and her then-husband made pleas on national television for the safe return of 3-year-old Michael and 14-month old Alex, according to the Associated Press.
After an investigation and nationwide search for her sons, Susan Smith confessed on Nov. 3, 1994 to letting her vehicle roll into John D. Long Lake with her two sons inside, according to the Associated Press.
In 1995, she was convicted of two counts of murder and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years, according to the Associated Press.
The South Carolina Parole Board unanimously denied Susan Smith’s request for parole during a virtual hearing on Nov. 20.
David Smith said on TODAY he doesn’t think his former wife has been rehabilitated after 30 years in prison.
“I don’t think she’ll ever be rehabilitated,” he said. “I don’t think she’s, even to me, she’s never been really sorry for what she did.”
While in prison, Susan Smith has faced multiple disciplinary actions, including being caught with contraband in 1997 and using drugs in 2010 and 2015, according to the South Carolina Department of Corrections.
She was also transferred to another prison in 2000 after two prison guards pleaded guilty to having sexual encounters with her, NBC News reported.
In 2015, Susan Smith wrote to local newspaper The State to defend herself and her actions on that night in 1994.
“Something went very wrong that night,” she wrote. “I was not myself. I was a good mother and I loved my boys … There was no motive as it was not even a planned event. I was not in my right mind … I am not the monster society thinks I am.”
David Smith said on TODAY there were “no signs” that she would ever hurt their children.
“That’s why I believed her the whole nine days,” he said. “I never doubted her.”
“I’ve never denied that she was a great mother up until the moment that she killed ’em,” he added.
During Susan Smith’s trial, David Smith told TODAY’s Craig Melvin he thought about killing her.
“I used to sit there and look at the back of her head and then look at where the bailiffs were, the officers were and think about killing her,” he said. “How quick could I get to her? Could I reach her before that officer reaches me or could I get to her before that person would jump in front of me before I got my hands on her?”
When Craig asked if he still wanted her dead, David Smith responded: “Maybe I do.”
Still, David Smith, who has remarried and become a father again, said he has forgiven his ex-wife.
“That’s the way I was taught. It doesn’t make it any easier. It doesn’t make the pain any less, but I had to forgive her, and move on with my life,” he said. “I had to forgive her ’cause it was just gonna eat me up if I didn’t.”
“God gives us free will, free choice, and that was her choice that night,” he added. “Nobody else’s choice, nobody made it for her. She made the choice to murder Michael and Alex and I don’t blame anybody else.”
He added that he still thinks of Michael and Alex, especially when certain songs come on.
“Usually it’s a song that I hear. Not any particular song, just different songs,” he said. “And it just makes me remember how much I miss them. How I wish I could tell them I miss you so much.”
When asked if he thinks his ex-wife is a danger to society, he replied: “What scares me is that she would get out and then running into her somewhere in the local Walmart or the local store somewhere.”
“Because I don’t wanna see her,” he continued. “I don’t ever want to have to face her in public like that.”
