Transcript of Killer mom Susan Smith returns to spotlight as parole hearing nears

She did the unthinkable, the unimaginable, the unforgivable.

I want to say to my babies, that your mama loves you so much.

For a moment in time, Susan Smith had the entire nation hanging on her desperate please. But after days of television appearances, her deception revealed.

Susan Smith has been arrested and will be charged with two counts of murder in connection with the deaths of her children.

Now, 30 years after a jury convicted her and sent her to prison for life, the 52-year-old convict is getting her first chance at parole. Tonight, those who remember the case vividly telling us why she should not go free.

The jury truly believed and chose to give her life, believing she would spend the rest of her life in prison, being remorseful, thinking about Michael and Alex.

Even her ex-husband coming out in a rare television interview. She doesn't deserve to ever be free again. On October 25, 1994, Susan reported what we now know was a fake story about how a black man with a gun carjacked her and drove off with her son still strapped into their car seats.

I've been on the highway in this same area with my children at that exact same time. It just was too close to your heart.

The idea of a white woman accusing a black man of a crime where that man did not even exist. It's always the ability to point to that bogeyman, point to that black man that committed the crime.

Susan and her husband appeared together as a united front. David believing Susan's please.

Your mom and daddy are going to be right here waiting on you when you get home. I love you so much.

To the public, it was compelling stuff. To the authorities, they had questions early on.

Behind the scenes, law enforcement is focusing more on the discrepancies, and little by little, her story was unraveling.

On November third, nine days after the boys went missing, investigators confronted Susan and the 23-year-old confessed.

Everyone down, please.

We're going to make a brief announcement. Susan Smith has been arrested and will be charged with two counts of murder in connection with the deaths of her children, Michael, three, and Alexander, 14 months.

I almost dropped to my knees. I mean, did he say kill? How could she have two children and do them like that?

This was a stunning moment. The woman who's on TV calling for help, she's the one who did this?

In her handwritten confession, Smith wrote that on the night of October 25th, she didn't want to live anymore. Her. She detailed how she was in love with someone very much, but he didn't love her and never would. She said she decided to kill herself and her sons because she didn't want them to grow up without a mom. She drove to John DeLong Lake, got out of the car, put it in neutral, and let it roll down the boat ramp into the water with her boys inside. Tommy Pope is now a state representative in South Carolina. Back then, he was the lead prosecutor in the case.

I I tried a lot of horrible cases, but the media component just took everything you would normally have in a case and put it on steroids.

For months, the focus of the nation was on this tiny town, hitting a fever pitch just days before the trial when investigators reenacted the crime. At trial, prosecutors played that reenactment and heard testimony from one of the divers who describes seeing a small hand against the car window at the bottom of the Lake. The jury also heard from her ex-lover, Tom Findlay.

You have someone saying, Yeah, I was in this relationship with her and broke it off because I didn't want the responsibility of children. Now the fingers pointed directly at her. I think it gives her the intent.

Susan Smith's main defense, her mental health.

They focused a lot on her background, on what had happened to her as a child, being molested, being troubled, and tried to portray her as something other than a monster.

The jury found Susan guilty after just two hours of deliberation.

There was a tough psychological component going here. People didn't want to believe that a mother could do that. It made it tougher with the jury in that regard because you want to at least find a mental health reason. Fortunately, the jury came back with murder.

When the sentencing decision came down in late July, 1995.

Just moments ago, the jury of nine men and three women decided that Susan Smith should spend the rest of her natural life in prison.

Now 52, Susan has been behind bars for more than half her life. Her records details of misbehavior, including at least three instances of drug use. She was also sanction for mutilation. In 2015, 20 years after her son's murders, Susan wrote a letter to a local newspaper. She said, I'm not the monster society thinks I am. 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. She maintains that she had no motive, and she was not in her right mind. That's an argument she can try with the parole board and We hope that with today's better understanding of mental health and the impacts of sexual trauma, they may listen.

From what we see of South Carolina so far in the year 2024, only 5% of people have been released on parole. So the chances of Susan Smith being released, are that much smaller.

We reached out to Susan Smith for comment, and she has yet to respond. She has, reportedly, been calling family and male friends, saying she's convinced she will be let out. Her ex-husband disagrees, recently speaking in a rare interview with Court TV. I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure you stay behind bars. For more on this shocking story, watch Impact by Nightline.line's Killer Mom: The Case of Susan Smith, now streaming on Hulu.