Susan Leigh Vaughan Smith (born September 26, 1971) is an American convict who was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after serving 30 years for filicide. On July 22, 1995, Smith was convicted of the 1994 drowning deaths of her two sons, 3-year-old Michael Daniel Smith and 14-month-old Alexander Tyler Smith
The case gained international attention because of Smith’s false claim that an African-American man had kidnapped her sons during a carjacking [she and her children are/were Caucasian]. Her defense attorneys, David Bruck and Judy Clarke, called expert witnesses to testify she suffered from mental health issues that impaired her judgment when she committed the crimes.
Susan Smith rarely had a stable home life growing up. Her father committed suicide when she was 6 years old, and Smith herself attempted suicide at age 13. Her mother then married Beverly Russell, a member of the local chapter of the Christian Coalition, who later was revealed to have molested Smith when she was a teenager. One newspaper claimed the sexual relations between them continued until six months before Smith murdered her children.
After graduating from high school in 1989, Smith made a second attempt to end her own life. She married David Smith, and they had two sons. The relationship was rocky due to mutual allegations of infidelity, and they separated several times.
On October 25, 1994, Smith reported to police her vehicle had been carjacked by a black man who drove away with her sons still inside. For nine days she made dramatic pleas on national television for their rescue and return. However, following an intensive investigation and a nationwide search, she confessed on November 3, 1994, to letting her car roll into nearby John D. Long Lake, drowning them inside.
Her motivation was reportedly to be able to have a relationship with a local wealthy man, even though he had no intention of forming a family. She said there was no motive nor did she plan the murders, stating she was not in a right state of mind.<3>
CITED REFERENCES
3. Wikipedia contributors, “Susan Smith,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Smith (accessed April 4, 2019).
