The former South Carolina prosecutor who successfully put Susan Smith behind bars for infamously killing her two young sons in 1994 by strapping them into their car seats and rolling the vehicle into a lake, says she needs to remain in prison.
Tommy Pope, who led the prosecution against Smith and who now serves in the state Legislature as a Republican, noted that she will once again be eligible for parole in 2026. She was denied in 2024.
"Susan, to me, needs to remain incarcerated as punishment for what she's done," Pope told Fox News Digital at CrimeCon in Denver on Sept. 6, noting that she may not pose a danger to society if she were released. "It's not like she's going to have two more kids and do the same thing, arguably."
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Smith is serving a life sentence for drowning her sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander Smith, after strapping them into the back seat of her car and letting it roll down a ramp into John D. Long Lake in Union, South Carolina, on Oct. 25, 1994.
Smith, 22 at the time, watched as it took six minutes for the car to submerge in the lake. At trial, prosecutors argued that she should have received the death penalty.
Pope and Smith's former husband, David, both attended last year's parole hearing to argue against her release.
"If she would get out and say, move to Montana and you never heard from her again, get married, do whatever she wants, in a weird way, that would be healthier for David Smith, the father who's been carrying this," Pope said.
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Smith drew the ire of many when she was arrested for the deaths of the two boys. She previously blamed a Black man for carjacking her and speeding off with her sons. For nine days, she and her husband made public pleas for their return.
Law enforcement launched a massive manhunt for the non-existent suspect.
"Carjackers don't take kids," Pope said. "When it first started, she's blaming a Black guy and I'm thinking, 'she's got them stashed somewhere. This is something to do with them being estranged, she and David.' When it came out that she had done it, it was shocking."
Since being sent to prison, Smith has been caught communicating with a victim and/or witness of a crime, speaking with a documentary filmmaker, and guards have admitted to having sexual relations with Smith.
Pope noted that Smith knows how to portray herself for her benefit.
"It's always somebody else's fault," he said. "She's either a victim or a princess."
