I remember very distinctly when Susan Smith first went in front of the cameras to claim her two young sons had been taken by a “black man” who had carjacked her and driven off with her boys still in the car. I remember it because my wife and I were visiting my parents in Iowa when the news broke, and I remember it because, at that first emotional press conference, in which Susan Smith begged for the return of her sons, both Mom and my wife said the same thing: “She’s lying.”
Mom summarized why they both thought she was lying: “The only way you would get me away from my children is to kill me.”
When Susan Smith was convicted, Mom and my wife remembered that conversation. They were right; Susan Smith was lying. And now, serving two consecutive life sentences for murdering her sons, Susan Smith has made an emotional appeal for parole.
Smith apologized for…
