Susan Smithwho has been in prison for the past three decades for the drowning deaths of her two sons, reportedly plans to tout her good conduct record at her first parole hearing.
“She believes she can be a free woman in less than two months,” a relative said. New York Post“She’s hoping (the hearing) will go in her favor. She’s put all her hopes in that basket, and she’s expressing her independence.”
Smith’s relative told the Post that she intends to argue that having grown up in a sexually abusive household “makes her moral ideology different from other people’s.”
“It affected him really, really badly,” the relative said.
Pictured recently on the left and in 1994 on the right, 22-year-old Susan Smith has been imprisoned in South Carolina for nearly 30 years for the murders of her two sons. (South Carolina Department of Corrections)
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Smith also plans to argue that she was suffering from an undiagnosed mental illness when her car plunged into John D. Long Lake in 1994. South Carolina Her two sons — 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander — were strapped into their car seats.
The killer mother said in a 2015 letter to reporters from The State that she was “not the monster society thinks she is.”
“Something went very wrong that night. I was not myself,” Smith wrote. “There was no motive because there was no plan in place. I was not in my senses.”
During her trial, a defense psychologist diagnosed the 22-year-old with dependent personality disorder (DPD), a disorder characterized by “the need to hold others responsible for the most important aspects of one’s 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 losing support or approval.”
Prosecutors had said Smith was motivated to kill her sons a week earlier when her former boyfriend and would-be romantic partner, Tom Findlay, wrote her a letter saying her sons were a hindrance to his life.
Susan Smith was convicted of murdering her two sons, 3-year-old Michael Daniel Smith and 14-month-old Alexander Tyler Smith, on July 22, 1995. Initially, Smith claimed a black man had robbed her car while the two boys were in her vehicle, but her story unraveled and the woman admitted she had let her car crash into the lake with her boys strapped in. (Getty Images)
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Smith’s conduct record in prison is also spotty – as well as convictions for drug possession and self-harm, Smith was also punished for having sex with two prison guards in 2000.
Because of the different power dynamics, Smith has said those relationships 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 (she) had no choice.”
WATCH ON FOX NATION: The shocking story of Susan Smith
Earlier, one of those prison guards had told NewsNation Smith should not be released.
Alfred Rowe said, “His prison record reflects that … He hasn’t really learned anything while he was in prison except how to do illegal things other than murder his sons.”
The family member said Smith would argue he has turned his life around in prison. According to prison records obtained by Fox News Digital, he hasn’t been disciplined since 2015 and has held a steady job behind bars.
Susan Smith, close to parole after killing young sons, says she would make a ‘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 has become a mature woman. And she feels she can do well outside of prison,” the relative told the Post.
David Smith, the father of Smith’s murdered children, intends to oppose his ex-wife’s release during her parole hearing, either through a written letter or a speech delivered to the parole board.
“I would remind him of what he did and who the victims were in this case,” he said. Court TV“Of course not him.”
Susan Smith and her husband appeared on national television to plead for the return of their children, as Smith claimed a black man had robbed their car and kidnapped the boys.
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However, nine days later Smith confessed that he had drowned the boys.
He was convicted of murder but was not sentenced to death but instead given a sentence of life imprisonment, with the possibility of parole after 30 years.
“I think the time has come now,” he said One of her many prison supporters earlier this year. “I’ve paid my debt. I deserve to be released. I’m not a threat to anyone anymore. Just let me live my life.”
