Susan Smith — Transcript

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1. 0:00Susan Lee Smith is an American who was
2. 0:02sentenced to life in prison for
3. 0:04murdering her children. Born in Union,
4. 0:07South Carolina, and a former student of
5. 0:09the University of South Carolina Union,
6. 0:12she was convicted on July 22nd, 1995, of
7. 0:16murdering her two sons, 3-year-old
8. 0:18Michael Daniel Smith, born October 10th,
9. 0:211991, and 14-month-old Alexander Tyler
10. 0:24Smith, born August 5th, 1993.
11. 0:28The case gained worldwide attention
12. 0:30shortly after it developed due to her
13. 0:32claim that a black man carjacked her and
14. 0:34kidnapped them. Her defense attorneys
15. 0:37presented expert testimony that she
16. 0:39suffered from mental health issues that
17. 0:41impaired her judgment when she committed
18. 0:43the crimes. According to the South
19. 0:45Carolina Department of Corrections,
20. 0:48Smith will be eligible for parole on
21. 0:50November 4th, 2024 after serving a
22. 0:53minimum of 30 years. She is incarcerated
23. 0:56at South Carolina's Left Correctional
24. 0:58Institution near Greenwood. The case on
25. 1:02October 25th, 1994, Smith reported to
26. 1:06police that she had been carjacked by a
27. 1:08black man who drove away with her son
28. 1:10still in the car. For 9 days, she made
29. 1:13dramatic pleas on national television
30. 1:15for the rescue and return of them.
31. 1:18However, following an intensive
32. 1:20investigation and a nationwide search on
33. 1:22November 3rd, 1994, she confessed to
34. 1:26letting her 1990 Mazda Proka copyright
35. 1:29role into nearby John D. Long Lake,
36. 1:31drowning them inside. Her motivation was
37. 1:34reportedly to be able to have a
38. 1:36relationship with a local wealthy man,
39. 1:38even though the latter had no intention
40. 1:40of forming a family. Later investigation
41. 1:43revealed that detectives doubted Smith's
42. 1:46testimony from the very beginning and
43. 1:48believed that she killed her own sons.
44. 1:50On the second day of the investigation,
45. 1:52the police, suspecting that she knew
46. 1:55their location, hoped that they were
47. 1:57still alive. Investigators started to
48. 2:00search the nearby lakes and ponds,
49. 2:02including the lake where the bodies were
50. 2:04eventually found. Initial searches did
51. 2:07not uncover the car because the police
52. 2:09believed it would be within 30 ft of the
53. 2:11shore and did not search farther. It
54. 2:14turned out to be 60 ft offshore. After
55. 2:17the boys were missing for 2 days, Smith
56. 2:20and her husband David were subjected to
57. 2:22a polygraph test. It was inconclusive,
58. 2:26but showed that her claim to not know
59. 2:27the location of her sons was a lie.
60. 2:30Afterwards, during the interrogation,
61. 2:33she accepted the results of the test and
62. 2:35failed the same question on every
63. 2:37polygraph test thereafter. At the
64. 2:40intersection where she claimed to have
65. 2:42been carjacked, no other cars appeared.
66. 2:45The biggest breakthrough of the case was
67. 2:47her description of the carjacking
68. 2:49location. She claimed that lights at the
69. 2:51intersection where she stopped only turn
70. 2:53red when a car approaches on the
71. 2:55intersecting road. However, since she
72. 2:58also claimed that no other cars were on
73. 3:00the road at the time, she would have had
74. 3:02no reason to stop at the
75. 3:04intersection. Smith's defense
76. 3:06psychiatrist diagnosed her with
77. 3:08dependent personality disorder and major
78. 3:11depression. Her father committed suicide
79. 3:13when she was 6 years old, and she rarely
80. 3:16had a stable home life. It was disclosed
81. 3:19in her trial that she was molested in
82. 3:21her teens by her stepfather, who not
83. 3:23only admitted to it, but also revealed
84. 3:26that he had consensual sex with her as
85. 3:28an adult. At 13, she attempted suicide.
86. 3:32After graduating from high school in
87. 3:351989, she made a second attempt to end
88. 3:38her own life. She married David and had
89. 3:41the two sons, but the relationship was
90. 3:43rocky due to mutual allegations of
91. 3:45infidelity, and they separated several
92. 3:48times. At one time, Smith was
93. 3:51incarcerated in the administrative
94. 3:53segregation unit in the Camille Griffin
95. 3:55Graham Correctional Institution in
96. 3:57Colombia, South Carolina. While she had
97. 4:00been in prison, two correctional
98. 4:02officers have been punished for having
99. 4:04sex with Smith, Lieutenant Houston
100. 4:06Kaggel and Captain Alfred Arrow Junior.
101. 4:10Consequently, she was moved to a prison
102. 4:12in Greenwood where she is currently
103. 4:14held. In 2003, she placed a personal ad
104. 4:18at
105. 4:19writerprisoner.com, which has since been
106. 4:20retracted. See also racial hoax, China
107. 4:25Pnold, Toana Broly, Diane DS, Duke
108. 4:29Lacrosse Case, Laona, Darly Routia,
109. 4:32Dennis Schlloer, Charles Stewart, Andrea
110. 4:35Yates Books, Eddie
111. 4:37Cornelius, Brutal
112. 4:39Imagination, New York, Penguin Patnham,
113. 4:48ISBNA978-399147203 Fdeadis, Maria, Sins
114. 4:51of The Mother St. Martins Press
115. 5:01ISBNA978--312-95,658-5 Recorders George
116. 5:05Susan Smith victim or murderer
117. 5:08Glenbridge Publishing
118. 5:15ISBNA0-944,435-38-6 Russell Linda
119. 5:18Stevens Shirley My daughter Daughter
120. 5:21Susan Myth author's book nook
121. 5:30ISBNA978--9,7176-1- niner Smith David
122. 5:34Beyond All Reason My Life with Susan
123. 5:37Smith Zebra
124. 5:40ISBNA978
125. 5:44082175220-3 References South Carolina
126. 5:48Law Enforcement Division Sled Latent
127. 5:50Print and Crime Time scene worksheet.
128. 5:52Flotation characteristics of 1990 Mazda
129. 5:56Protegé. May 24th, 1995. Footnotes.
130. 6:01External links. US News Year in Review.
131. 6:04Susan Smith trial. December 28th, 1995.
132. 6:08CNN Michael and Alexander Smith Memorial
133. 6:11at Find Darrave.