Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Child Killer Susan Smith Plans to Fight for Freedom — Again

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

Susan Smith, the woman from South Carolina who drowned her two young sons in 1994 and claimed she was carjacked, was denied parole in November. Smith's ex-husband, David Smith, the father of three-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex, plans to argue against her release at every hearing. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy looks back at the case and what lies ahead in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime. PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Get 50% off of confidential background reports at https://www.truthfinder.com/lccrimefix and access information about almost anyone!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest:Jenn Wood https://x.com/indyjenn_CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. I know that what I did was so horrible. And I don't give anything if I can go back and change it. Susan Smith lost her first bid for parole, but that doesn't mean she won't have a chance to plead her case again. Smith is serving life in prison for the murders of her two young sons, Michael and Alex. I look at the incredibly sad case. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy.

When Michael and Alex were reported kidnapped back in 1994, that set off a search for two little boys in a red Mazda that took the nation by storm. Michael was three and Alex was only 14 months old and their mother, Susan Smith, told sheriff's deputies in Union County, South Carolina that a black man had carjacked her and took her precious sons. This quickly became a national news story, with the entire nation on high alert looking for Michael and Alex and that red car. Susan Smith pleaded for the safe return of the boys on national television. I would like to say to whoever has my children that they please, I mean, please bring them home. All of this we know now was a lie, but the public wouldn't know that for

nine days. And Susan's estranged husband at the time, David Smith, stood by her for those nine days supporting her. He believed her, and you're going to hear from him in a bit. But law enforcement, including former solicitor Tommy Pope, they were suspicious of Smith from the start. The initial report of the carjacker, I'd 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. Susan Smith ultimately confessed and was taken into custody and charged with the murders of

Michael and Alex and Tommy Pope sought the death penalty. I do believe in death penalty. If we have it, then you gotta 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 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 had committed the crime, same deal. So I just thought Susan needed to be treated in the same manner. The difficulty there is it makes

people uncomfortable to think, one, a mother would do that. Two, somebody that looks like our co-worker, 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. But the jury opted for a life sentence instead. Back in 1994, that meant that Smith could be eligible for parole after serving 30 years. Michael and Alex's father, David Smith and his wife Tiffany, told me before the hearing that they would oppose Smith's release. No, I do not want Susan to be released. I don't know what I'm going to even say to the parole board other than I don't want to release, but more than that, I don't know. I know I'm just going to speak from the heart and, you know, just remind them of, most importantly, the lives that she took, but also the lives that she changed forever. All the people that, all the family that, you know, she changed.

I don't know if it's the right way to put it, but history for, like, my life, the way my life's supposed to go, she changed all that. And I just, I want to tell the parole parole board you can't let her out. I mean she you know she did it intentionally with malice and forethought as they say in the courts and 30 years is it's just not enough for justice for Michael and Alex. The case of Susan Smith murdering her two sons, Michael and Alex, is unbelievable even 30 years later. Smith has been behind bars since 1994. I put her into truthfinder.com,

the world's largest public record search service, to see what I could find. Susan Smith appears in the search results. She's 53 and her conviction for the murders of Michael and Alex appears in those search results. She's 53 and her conviction for the murders of Michael and Alex appears in those search results. Truthfinder is a great resource because it will show you criminal and traffic records, past addresses, social media accounts,

phone numbers, and relatives. The one thing I like about Truthfinder, it will also show you the addresses of registered sex offenders in your neighborhood. If you wanna try Truthfinder, I have a great deal for you. You can get 50% off of confidential background reports. Just log on to www.truthfinder.com slash lccrimefix and start accessing information about almost anyone. Smith's time behind bars has been checkered, to say the least. She's been in trouble for using drugs. She's been moved from one prison to another for having

sex with two prison guards who were later fired and she had attempted suicide. From 2015 to 2024, she didn't have any reprimands. Then in August, that changed. Smith lost canteen and tablet privileges for talking with a documentary film producer and promising to connect that producer with David Smith. Her record appeared to show a woman who was not doing what she needed to do behind bars to rehabilitate herself. At her parole hearing in November, there was a lot of interest, and her attorney spoke about ways in which Smith had tried to better herself while in prison. She's been IRC chairman. Within the institution, that means something. You're voted on by your peers, and it is an honor to be in that position.

She has been a math tutor in education. She's helped numerous inmates obtain their GED. She's been in the Character Arts Program, Prison Fellowship, which I think is extremely important to her. She's much stronger in her faith than she has ever been, and that is a comfort for her. It's something that she enjoys. It's something that is extremely important. Jumpstart, good program. She's been in that program. She would actually like to go to Jumpstart if the board would consider her for parole. He has been out of the program for a

couple of years and that would be, she'd have to do some other things for that to happen. So that's why we have chosen that she would go and live with her brother. Good, solid individual in the community. And then Susan Smith spoke. First of all, I want to say how very sorry I am. It's okay Susan, just talk with us. I know that what I did was so horrible. And I would give anything if I could go back and change it. And I love Michael and Alice with all my heart. No drugs or alcohol the night that you murdered your children?

No, ma'am, I was not. But then David Smith spoke against the release of the woman who murdered his little boys. It's been a tough 30 years. I'm not here to speak about what she's done in prison. You all have the records and accounts of all that. I'm just here to advocate on Michael and Alex's behalf and as their father. You know, God gives us free choice. And she made free choice that night to end her life.

This wasn't a tragic mistake. It wasn't something that she didn't mean to do. She purposely meant to end their life. I never have felt any remorse from her for it. She's never expressed any to me. I've never seen it on paper. Um, no, she, you've heard, she changed my life for the rest of my life that night. Some for the better, some for the worse, but what she did not only to Michael and Alex, she came pretty close to causing me to end my life because of the grief that she brought upon me. But thankfully she didn't. 95 that through the state's law

life in prison meant 30 years to life. And now that's different, but at that time that's what counts. I understand that. But ultimately to me that's only 15 years per child. Her own children.

It's just not enough. So I'm asking that you please do not hurt Pearl today, and hopefully in the future, but specifically today. Do not let her out. I miss them very much, and I love them very much. And I will be here every two years going forward to ensure that your death doesn't go in vain. Thank you. The parole board swiftly denied Susan Smith's parole, but she comes up for parole again in 2026. I want to bring in Jen Wood. She is

the researcher at Fitz News, and she has been covering the Susan Smith case and her bid for parole, which was denied, as I mentioned earlier. Jen, first of all, your thoughts on Susan Smith being denied parole. I know I was not surprised one bit. She's coming up for the first time, and, you know, she hasn't exactly been the best inmate during her 30 years behind bars. No, I was not surprised either, you know, given her history of disciplinary actions within the Department of Corrections, and, you know, just the enormity of the crime and the, you know, the public reaction to it, I thought it was, there was very little chance

she would get parole. One thing that I found so interesting during the hearing was that the member of the parole board, who was the main person, basically, the chair asking most of the questions, she said, you know, she thanked the Smith family for coming in, for everybody who was with them, supporting them, and said, we'll have an answer for you later today. I think they were out of the room for maybe 15 seconds and then they took the vote and it was boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, unanimous deny.

Straight. Yeah. All red deny. There was one member who abstained because they had served as the warden for a time at one of the prisons where Susan Smith had been housed. So this was very swift. I mean, they didn't have an answer later that afternoon. They had an answer like that. So they were ready to send a very clear message. Now, Susan Smith will come up for parole again in two years. I'm not sure that the answer will be much different. I don't anticipate it being any different in two years or in four years. I mean, part of what they look at in the parole system is, you know, can this person go back into society and be accepted by the community? And I don't think there's any chance that that will ever happen for Susan Smith.

I don't think that, you know, she could go to the grocery store in Union, South Carolina, and, you know, everybody feel good about that. And, you know, listening to her ex-husband and the father of the two children, David Smith speak, was heartbreaking. And I fully anticipate he will every two years be back to make the same statement. And I think you're right. I mean, I don't think he is ever going to let this go. And if there ever comes a time where he's unable to go and speak for Michael and Alex,

because that's what's most important to him and his wife, Tiffany. I'm sure his wife, Tiffany, and his daughter, Savannah, will pick up that mantle and will attend all of these parole hearings, as will Tommy Pope, the solicitor who put her away, and the current solicitor, Kevin Brackett. What do you know about what she's been doing behind bars right now, since you work for Fitz, you're down there in South Carolina covering this? I mean, her attorney said during the parole hearing that, because it doesn't say she's had any educational credits on the prison website. So I was shocked when he said she was working on an associate's degree. That struck me because that is not reflected in the records at all. She's not done any educational stuff,

according to the records, online. I mean, what's she doing every day behind bars? What has your reporting revealed? So I had done a FOIA for her call records and texts, you know, communications from the prison tablet in the months leading up to the parole hearing, just to get a sense of what was going on. And, you know, right before the parole hearing, she got disciplined for speaking to a documentary producer, which is not allowed in the South Carolina Department of Corrections. She didn't, I mean, nothing in those communications other than the communications with the producer, which aren't allowed. She seemed to just be kind of preparing

for the parole hearing mentally. She had mentioned she was trying to join a group within prison. I think it sounded like it was, you know, religion related. And she did not ultimately, she did the interview for that and did not ultimately get accepted. But other than that, she seems to be reading books and pretty quiet. So her days are taken up with reading books. You know, she has a job in prison, we know that. You know, but not really doing a whole lot. I mean, there's not a whole lot you can do in prison. No, I mean, she did get a lot of fan, you know, letters, like, you know, people get those

in prison when they're high profile inmates. You know, she did, I did see a lot of that. And she did communicate with them back, but it was nothing overly salacious, which surprised me because, you know, historically, you know, she's had quite the history with communicating with people outside of prison. Yeah. And we knew that she had a lot of men contacting her who wanted to be, you know, her boyfriend. They were hoping maybe she would be released. And there had been some calls released where, you know, it sounded like she was quite flirty with them and things like that.

So so what comes next for her other than the parole hearing in 2026? I mean, I'm not sure what she could do to show the parole board that she's been rehabilitated because we've seen, you know, what she said to the parole board. I mean, she even said in the parole hearing that she wasn't guilty of the offenses that she had been, or, you know, the reprimands, not the murder, but the murders of Michael and Alex, but the reprimands she had been brought up on in prison. She kind of made it sound like these things had been blown out of proportion or misconstrued. And she was appealing the thing with the documentary filmmaker. Right. I mean, I think if I was giving her advice, I would tell her to really buckle down

and get those credits that the parole board looks for. But even when she was making her statement and started crying, I think even when she shows remorse, watching her, and I had followed this case back in 1994 when it originally happened. All I could think of is that's the exact same response we saw when she was lying on camera about not knowing where her children were. So I think that's going to be hard for her to overcome. But, you know, if she's getting her associate's degree, I think it would be good for her to keep pursuing that and keep pursuing those educational credits and the things that the parole board does look for. I feel like it's still raw in South Carolina, this case.

I mean, even if you weren't, you were a younger person back then, you remember it. And if you didn't, maybe you weren't born yet, you certainly have heard about it because it's still probably one of the most notorious cases in South Carolina history in recent memory, aside from the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdoch. Yeah. And, you know, it was, it was interesting for me personally, you know, when this first happened, I was, I think I was 16, 17. So I followed it and it was, you know, I remember thinking how tragic it was and how could, how could a mother do this? And now I'm a mother. So looking at it now, it was, to me, it was even more heartbreaking. So I think as time passes, the crime doesn't get any less, any less horrific. It just it just it's not something that you can overcome.

Yeah, it certainly is not. And I know that David Smith and his wife, Tiffany, they want the focus to be on Michael and Alex, the two little boys who never got to grow up. And I think that, you know, they wore the pictures into the parole hearing and that's what people remember. I mean, they remember Susan Smith, but people remember that those little boys, they didn't have a chance. And they certainly didn't have a chance when that car went into the lake and it's heartbreaking yeah i mean i remember seeing that picture on the news as they were searching for them you know before they before she confessed to what had happened and you know it's the same picture that they wore and it's the same picture you see in your mind mentally when you think about

this case it's just yeah it is a hard image to to see. And I am glad that so many people spoke at the hearing in their honor. Most certainly. Well, we will be looking ahead in 2026 to see what happens. Jen Wood, thank you so much. Thanks for having me. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ian Janette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.