Susan Smith, the South Carolina mother imprisoned for drowning her two young sons, was denied parole after appearing before the board via Zoom on Wednesday.
Smith, now 53, can request a parole hearing every two years beginning after serving 30 years of her sentence.
The board pointed out that her case drained resources from law enforcement efforts to locate her sons.
In response to a question about what she would say to the responders, Smith stated, “I’m sorry that I put them through that.”
“I know that what I did was horrible. And I would give anything if I could go back and change it,” Smith told the parole board “I love Michael and Alex with all my heart.”
In her final statements, Smith leaned on religion, stating, “God is a big part of my life.” God had forgiven her for her crimes, Smith said, and she asked the same of the board.
“I ask that you show that kind of mercy, as well,” she said.
Her ex-husband, David Smith, arrived at the hearing wearing a pin of his slain sons.
“This wasn’t a tragic mistake. … She purposely meant to end their life…I’ve never felt any remorse from her for it.”
“She came pretty close to causing me to end my life because of the grief that she brought upon me.”
Smith, 23 at the time and a single mother, spent nine days in October 1994, pleading for help in locating her two sons, Michael and Alexander.
She claimed that on the night her sons disappeared, a Black male approached her at a stoplight, forced her out of her red Mazda Protégé, stole her car, and drove away with her two sons still inside the vehicle.
On November 3, 1994, following a nationwide search and an in-depth investigation, Smith admitted she left her boys in her car, then let the vehicle roll into the John D. Long Lake in Union County. Police later found both children dead inside the car, around 60 feet from the shore.
Smith was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years, avoiding the death penalty.
