Susan Smith, in prison for the cold-blooded 1994 murders of her two young sons, is hoping to be granted parole later this month — but the parole board has been deluged dozens of letters of opposition from friends, family and members of the public.
The South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services confirmed that it received more than 130 letters regarding Smith’s parole bid.
While the letters are not publicly accessible, a Smith family source told The Post that the contents of many of the letters are full of nasty comments about Smith’s attempt to get out of prison after 30 years.
“They’re awful,” said the relative. “They say things like ‘she belongs in that lake with her boys.’ People do not want her out of prison, and they’re telling the parole board that.”
Smith’s ex-husband, David, encouraged the public to write letters of opposition. In an interview this summer with Fox Carolina, he said that Smith should never be released.
“She took the greatest gift that we have of life,” he said. “She took that away from them, and I want people to remember that. Maybe those who are old enough when that happened to remember how they felt when they learned that Michael and Alex were dead and that she had done it; and for them to maybe themselves write a letter to the parole board or something encouraging them to keep her behind bars.”
A relative of David Smith told The Post that he will be speaking to the parole board for the Nov. 20 hearing.
Smith was a 22-year-old mom when she became a household name for killing her sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander. In 1994, she let her car roll into John D. Long Lake in Union County, South Carolina, with her boys still strapped into their car seats.
Smith then falsely told police that a black man had carjacked her and kidnapped the tots, leading to a manhunt in which authorities went door to door among local neighborhoods that were predominantly African-American.
Smith and her then-husband, David, appeared on national news every day, pleading for the boys’ safe return.
But nine days later, Smith finally confessed that there was no carjacker, and that she had drowned her sons in the lake.
Her alleged motive: She was having an affair with a wealthy man who didn’t want children. The car was pulled from the water with the two boys dead, exactly where she left them.
But Smith insists that she is just misunderstood. In a 2015 letter to The State newspaper, she said that she was mentally ill.
“I am not the monster society thinks I am. I am far from it,” she wrote. “I am far from it. Something went very wrong that night. 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.”
But Smith has had a rocky road in prison, and her release seems unlikely.
She was disciplined in 2000 for having sex with two guards while behind bars. She has always maintained that the sex was not consensual, due to the differing power dynamics.
She has also had several infractions — including in 2010 and 2015 — for having narcotics or marijuana behind bars.
But for nine years, Smith had been a model prisoner — until last month, when she was convicted of trying to cash in on her infamy by talking to a documentary producer from behind bars and discussing receiving payment for her story.
Smith lost her telephone, tablet and canteen privileges for 90 days, beginning Oct. 4. She can receive visitors, but has no electronic communication with anyone.
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