Читать книгу Parents Who Kill - Shocking True Stories of The World's Most Evil Parents - Carol Anne Davis - Страница 40

Six months after the murders, Susan Smith went to trial. The defence portrayed her as a victim of her unhappy childhood and cheating husband. David Smith was understandably enraged at being painted as the bad one – after all, he had been a loving parent to his sons.

Her stepfather, Bev Russell, took the stand and admitted abusing her when she was 15 and continuing an incestuous relationship with her. He said that it had ended shortly before she drowned her sons. Looking at Susan, he said ‘My heart breaks for what I have done to you.’ The prosecution, determined not to paint Susan as a victim, got him to admit that the sex had been consensual though this didn’t make it right on account of her age and the fact that he was in loco parentis and married to her mother.

Susan’s attorneys alleged that she’d planned to die with her boys, but had jumped out of the car at the last minute. She’d told them that she’d had second thoughts but that the car had sunk immediately, before she had time to free them from their seats. This contradicted the prosecution’s recreation, showing that the car had skimmed along the water for some distance and floated due to an almost-empty fuel tank before sinking slowly to the bottom of the lake. The children had taken at least five minutes to die.

The judge said that the jury could go for the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter if they preferred but they found her guilty of murder. She was sentenced to life, which effectively means that she won’t be eligible for parole for 30 years.

In Broad River Correctional Institute, Susan received numerous letters from religious practitioners who said that they were praying for her. She has remained deeply religious. She has also remained exceptionally needy, a woman who uses her sexuality to gain acceptance and a semblance of love.

In 2000, or earlier, she began an affair with a prison guard, a married man (his wife is a former prisoner) who had spent 13 years working as a corrections officer. The relationship came to light during a medical in September of that year, when Susan was found to have contracted a sexually-transmitted disease. Both she and the 50-year-old-guard admitted the relationship and he was promptly fired. Smith was told that she could also face sanctions such as losing her much-coveted job in the prison library or forfeiting the time that she gets to spend in the prison grounds.