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Susan Smith

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For other people named Susan Smith, see Susan Smith (disambiguation).

Susan Smith
Smith in 2012
Born
Susan Leigh Vaughan

(1971-09-26) September 26, 1971 (age 53)
Union, South Carolina, U.S.
Criminal statusIncarcerated
Spouse
David Smith
​
​
(m. 1991; div. 1995)​
[1]
ChildrenMichael Daniel (1991–1994)
Alexander Tyler (1993–1994)
Conviction(s)Murder (2 counts)
Criminal penaltyLife imprisonment with possibility of parole after 30 years
Imprisoned atLeath Correctional Institution

Susan Leigh Smith (née Vaughan; born September 26, 1971) is an American woman who was convicted of murdering her two sons, three-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander, in 1994 by drowning them in a South Carolina lake.[2]

The case gained international attention because of Smith's false claim that a black man had kidnapped her sons during a carjacking.[3] Her defense attorneys, David Bruck and Judy Clarke, called expert witnesses to testify that she had mental health issues that impaired her judgment when she committed the crimes.[4][5]

Smith was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.[2] According to the South Carolina Department of Corrections, she will first be eligible for parole on November 20, 2024. She is incarcerated at the Leath Correctional Institution near Greenwood, South Carolina.[6]

Family background

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Smith's father died by suicide when she was six years old, and Smith herself attempted suicide at age 13. Her mother then married Beverly C. Russell Jr. who later was revealed to have molested Smith when she was a teenager. Russell was a local businessman who later gained prominence in South Carolina's Republican Party and the Christian Coalition. Both Smith and Russell have stated that sexual relations between them continued until six months before the murders.[7][8]

After graduating from high school in 1989, Smith made a second suicide attempt after a married man she was in a relationship with ended their affair.[9] She married David Smith, and they had two sons. The relationship was rocky due to mutual allegations of infidelity, and they separated several times.[10]

Crimes

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On October 25, 1994, Smith reported to police that her vehicle had been carjacked by a black man who drove away with her sons still inside. For nine days, she made dramatic pleas on national television for their safe return. However, following an intensive investigation and a nationwide search for them, she confessed on November 3, 1994, to letting her car roll into nearby John D. Long Lake,[11] drowning them inside.[12] Her motivation was reportedly to facilitate a relationship with a local wealthy man named Tom Findlay. Prior to the murders, he sent her a letter ending their relationship and expressing that he did not want children.[13] She said there was no motive nor did she plan the murders, stating that she was not in a right state of mind.[10]

Later revelations indicated that detectives doubted Smith's story from the start and believed that she murdered her sons. By the second day of the investigation, the police suspected that she knew their location and hoped that they were still alive. Investigators started to search the nearby lakes and ponds, including John D. Long Lake, where their bodies were eventually found. Initial water searches did not locate the car because the police believed it would be within 30 feet of the shore, and did not search further; it turned out to be 122 feet from the shore. After the boys had been missing for two days, the Smiths were subjected to a polygraph test. The biggest breakthrough of the case was her description of the carjacking location. She had claimed that a traffic light had turned red, causing her to stop at an otherwise empty intersection. However, it was determined that the light would not have turned red for her unless another vehicle was present on the intersecting road. This conflicted with her statement that she did not see any other cars there when the carjacking took place.[14]

Trial

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In 1995, David Bruck and Judy Clarke served as co-counsel for Smith.[15] In their opening statement, Clarke argued Smith was deeply troubled and experienced severe depression.[15] Clarke told the jury: "This is not a case about evil. This is a case about despair and sadness."[16] The defense's theory of the case was that Smith drove to the edge of the lake to kill herself and her two sons, but her body willed itself out of the car.[15] The prosecution, on the other hand, believed she murdered her sons in order to start a new life with a former lover.[15] It took the jury only two and a half hours to convict her of murdering them. During the penalty phase, Tommy Pope, the lead prosecutor in the Smith case, argued passionately in favor of sentencing Smith to death. The jury ultimately voted against imposing the death penalty.[16] Smith was sentenced to two concurrent life in prison in 1995 for the murders of her two sons. Smith's defense psychiatrist diagnosed her with dependent personality disorder and major depression.[9]

Incarceration

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Smith was incarcerated in the Administrative Segregation Unit in the Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina.[17]

In 2000, two correctional officers at the Camille Griffin Graham Correctional Institution, Lieutenant Houston Cagle and Captain Alfred R. Rowe Jr., were charged after having sex with her.[18] Consequently, she was moved to the Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood.[19]

She will be eligible for parole in November 2024.[20]

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African-American poet Cornelius Eady's Brutal Imagination includes a sequence poem told through the perspective of the black man accused of drowning Smith's children. It hauntingly gives voice to the figure imagined into being by Smith.

The season three premiere of Arrested Development ("The Cabin Show") features a flashback scene in which Lucille Bluth (Jessica Walter), having recently gone off her postpartum medication, is watching a news story about Smith, and says, "Good for her!"— much to the concern of her son Buster (Tony Hale). The end of the episode features Lucille walking away from her car, with Buster asleep in the back seat as it rolls into a nearby body of water.[21]

Season 6, Episode 8 ("Angel") of Law and Order was based on her case.[22]

Blind Melon's song "Car Seat (God's Presents)," from their 1995 album Soup, was inspired by the Susan Smith murders,[23] as was the Tom House song "I'm in Love with Susan Smith." The song "When This is Over," on Hayden's 1995 album Everything I Long For, is written from the point of view of one of Smith's sons as the car sinks into the lake.[24] The first song released by Red Star Belgrade, "Union, S.C.", is written from Smith's perspective.[25]

Smith appears briefly in archival footage in the 2002 film Bowling for Columbine in a scene about "dangerous black guys."[26][27]

In "A Weak Link", a 2004 episode of NCIS, lead character Gibbs says "I seen a single mother drown her children because her boyfriend didn't like them".

The plot of the 2006 film Freedomland bears close resemblance to the case.

Smith's mugshot appears in the intro of the police procedural show Criminal Minds (2005–2020).

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Rekers, George (1996). Susan Smith: Victim Or Murderer. Glenbridge Publishing Ltd. pp. 12, 16. ISBN 0-944435-38-6.
  2. ^ a b Spitz, Werner U. (2005). "Investigation of Bodies in Water". In Spitz, Daniel J. (ed.). Spitz and Fisher's Medicolegal Investigation of Death. Guideline for the Application of Pathology to Crime Investigations (4th ed.). Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas Publishing Ltd. pp. 846–881. ISBN 978-0398075446.
  3. ^ "Susan Smith, Mother Who Killed Kids". NBC News. July 23, 2015. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
  4. ^ Grant, Lorrie (February 27, 1995). "Lawyers to Reveal Defense for Susan Smith: Could Pleas Insanity or Mental Illness for Mother of Drowned Boys". Buffalo News. Retrieved February 19, 2022.
  5. ^ Bragg, Rick (July 22, 1995). "Psychiatrist for Susan Smith's Defense Tells of a Woman Desperate to Be Liked". The New York Times.
  6. ^ Helling, Steve (November 15, 2022). "Sex, Drugs and Sickness: Inside Susan Smith's Life in Prison After Drowning Her Sons". People. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  7. ^ Gleick, Elizabeth (June 24, 2001). "Sex, betrayal, and murder". Time. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  8. ^ Scheer, Robert (August 1, 1995). "The River of Hypocrisy Runs Wide and Deep : The Smith case is remarkable, too, for its rank immorality". LA Times. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  9. ^ a b Pergament, Rachel. "Susan Smith Child Murderer or Victim?". Crime Library. TruTV. Archived from the original on December 29, 2011. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
  10. ^ a b Chuck, Elizabeth (July 23, 2015). "Susan Smith, Mother Who Killed Kids: 'Something Went Very Wrong That Night'". NBC News.
  11. ^ "John D. Long Lake". scgreatoutdoors.com. Retrieved June 18, 2016.
  12. ^ Montaldo, Charles (April 1, 2018). "Susan Smith — Profile of a Child Killer". About.com. Retrieved February 24, 2012.
  13. ^ Kemp, Kathy (April 17, 2005). "In The Arms of Angels" (PDF). Birmingham News. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 24, 2011.
  14. ^ Cahill, Harrison (October 18, 2014). "Susan Smith: 20 years later, case still a shocker". The State. Retrieved June 9, 2016.
  15. ^ a b c d Bragg, Rick (July 19, 1995). "Arguments Begin in Susan Smith Trial". The New York Times. Retrieved December 25, 2014.
  16. ^ a b O'Neill, Ann (January 12, 2011). "Lawyer keeps even the most loathed criminals off death row". CNN. Retrieved December 26, 2014.
  17. ^ Hewitt, Bill (March 13, 1995). "Tears of Hate & Pity". People. Vol. 43, no. 10. Archived from the original on November 26, 2017. Retrieved August 22, 2024.
  18. ^ "Sex with Child Killer Charged Again". ABC News. September 26, 2000. Archived from the original on May 23, 2023. Retrieved September 13, 2018.
  19. ^ "Former South Carolina prison guard says Susan Smith could kill again if paroled". WYFF. Greenville, South Carolina. February 4, 2020. Archived from the original on February 5, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
  20. ^ Fonrouge, Gabrielle (November 18, 2020). "Susan Smith, convicted of killing her young sons, could be freed in 2024". New York Post. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  21. ^ "Arrested Development: "The Cabin Show"/"For British Eyes Only"". The A.V. Club. November 13, 2012. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
  22. ^ Wyatt, Edward (January 8, 2005). "Even for an Expert, Blurred TV Images Became a False Reality". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
  23. ^ Coupe, Stuart (September 1995). "Just a Drummer" (PDF). Drum Media. Australia. Retrieved May 27, 2022 – via blindmelonarticles.com.
  24. ^ Jenkins, Mark (July 19, 1996). "Hayden's Edge". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
  25. ^ Menconi, David (February 11, 1995). "Continental Drift". Billboard. p. 18.
  26. ^ Bowling for Columbine at IMDb
  27. ^ "'Dangerous black Guys' from Bowling for Columbine". Vimeo. Retrieved July 10, 2022.

Further reading

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