Remember Susan Smith, who drowned her two boys?

[Archae]

Last edited Thu Sep 28, 2017, 11:43 PM - Edit history (1)

She can't behave even in jail.

The woman who infamously drowned her kids in a lake — and blamed a black man — has since led a dangerous life in prison

A South Carolina woman who infamously drowned her two young sons has not taken to life in prison well, reports say.
Susan Smith, now 46, lied in 1994 when she said an African-American man stole her car while her young sons were inside. Police eventually figured out that this was a complete fabrication and Smith confessed to watching her car roll into a lake, drowning her 14-month-old son, Alex, and 3-year-old son, Michael.

Fast forward to 2015 and Smith still said that she “loved [her] boys” and said in a letter from prison that the thing that hurts her the most is that “people think I hurt my children in order to be with a man. That is so far from the truth.”
Now in 2017, it has been revealed by PEOPLE that Smith has lived a life of sex, drugs and self-harm in prison.
According to the magazine, Smith has been disciplined several times in the last few years for self-mutilation and possession of narcotics or marijuana, losing privileges — including access to visitors, phone calls or the prison canteen — at times, for more than year as a result.

While the nature of the self-harm is not specified, we also know that Smith has twice been involved sexually with prison employees. One of those was a guard and the other was a captain. When Smith was 28 in 2000, she had sex four times with a guard named Houston Cagle, who was 50. For that, he was jailed for three months. But Cagle wasn’t the only one, as just one year later, prison captain Alfred Rowe pleaded guilty to having sex with Smith and got off with five years of probation.

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/09/the-woman-who-infamously-drowned-her-kids-in-a-lake-and-blamed-a-black-man-has-since-led-a-dangerous-life-in-prison/

[Major Nikon]

1. I can only imagine her life in prison has been one big shit show

That's not to say it isn't her own making, but it still has to be pretty rough.

[Hortensis]

29. For sure. There's something very wrong with her.

She's not insane, so it's probably a personality disorder. A severe one. She murdered her children. Of course life in prison hasn't her into a normally functioning human being, any more than freedom has inspired everyone else to rise above taking satisfaction in the torment of people like this.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. It helps to remember the back story on her.

Abused by a step father. Her ex, the father of her two sons, not helping out.

That does not justify what she did, but she didn't exactly have an idyllic childhood or happy adulthood.

Also, as I recall, she was sentenced to live without parole. That's hardly an incentive to be a model prisoner. I can't imagine being locked up from a young age, knowing I'd never get outside those walls ever again. Why not do drugs? Have sex whenever possible?

[brush]

3. I can't imagine killing two kids and blaming it on a black guy.

The way cops like to kill black men, she could easily have been responsible for another death.

No feeling sorry for that murderer.

[bluepen]

4. Most of us, thankfully, cannot imagine

killing two kids, period.

[Drahthaardogs]

7. Boo hoo

My ex didn't help enough with the kids so I killed them...


Come on. She's a terrible person. No excuses

[underpants]

27. Thank you. Was just about to post on this. Not an excuse but she was molested and sbused

Last edited Fri Sep 29, 2017, 12:43 PM - Edit history (2)

I'm not an expert but from her back story before that horrible act to this article it all sounds like the remnants of abuse. She has no feeling of self worth. She craves attention and approval from others mostly authority figures.

I know I know armchair psychiatrist.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

31. Thank you.

As we both agree, it's not an excuse, it doesn't justify what she did. But the complete lack of passion I often see here on DU is distressing.

[Lotusflower70]

5. She is a monster

She killed her babies. That's evil.

[EffieBlack]

11. It's possible to be horrified by and condemn what she did

and still try to understand how she got to that point. Even if you think she's an evil monster, it's unlikely she was born that way.

Condemnation and empathy are not mutually exclusive.

[Lotusflower70]

15. I didn't say they were

I can be empathetic to what she went through and detest what she did. Not everyone that goes through horrific things does something so heinous. There are consequences for your actions. Taking 2 lives brings consequences.

[EffieBlack]

21. On that, we can agree.

[spiderpig]

6. This statement had me shaking my head:

Fast forward to 2015 and Smith still said that she “loved [her] boys” and said in a letter from prison that the thing that hurts her the most is that “people think I hurt my children in order to be with a man. That is so far from the truth.”

So why did she kill her children? For recreation?

Sad to say, abuse is rampant, but most victims go on to find a productive way to lead their lives, and don't murder their inconvenient children and pin the blame on a phantom "black man".

[lindysalsagal]

8. Anyone know if she's been sterilized???

Where do I send the check?

[Freddie]

28. She's 46

99% chance Mother Nature took care of that issue.

[Dorian Gray]

9. She is a horrible person

I don't feel sorry for her in the least.

But I HATE how this article frames her sexual relationships with the prison guard and captain. She HAD SEX with them. (As though they were not in a position of authority over her, or they had no participation in the matter.)

[EffieBlack]

12. That is strange, isn't it?

A prison guard has sex with an inmate over whom he has ultimate power and who is probably in no position to object or resist and it's all her fault . . .

[Mariana]

16. I don't see that at all.

The writer describes how the prison employees were prosecuted for their crimes and the sentences they received.

"... prison captain Alfred Rowe pleaded guilty to having sex with Smith and got off with five years of probation." The writer seems to think Rowe's sentence should have been more severe.

I just don't see how you think the writer is implying that she was entirely at fault.

[EffieBlack]

22. Where did I say the writer implied it was her fault

The writer noted that the prison captain "got off with five years probation" and they were right. The SYSTEM is the problem, not the person writing about it.

[raccoon]

17. Thank you! Nt

[RobinA]

19. That Was My

reaction as well. I mean, even if she was perfectly happy to have the relationship, whose action is the greater problem?

[EffieBlack]

23. Exactly

And "relationship" is stretching it. Just like slaveowners didn't have "relationships" with their slaves because the slaves were in no position to say no, sex between an incarcerated woman and the man guarding her with a gun can never be fully consensual, even if she says yes.

[keithbvadu2]

32. "relationship" - conjugal visits with her republican step-daddy?

"relationship" - conjugal visits with her republican step-daddy?

Did he adopt her as if she was his own flesh and blood?

[JimGinPA]

10. Fuck Her...

Not only did she kill her children, it was premeditated and she thought she could get away with it.

I can only imagine the fear and suffering of those babies as they drowned.

It saddens me that instead of daily beatings, she gets to have sex and drugs.

[EffieBlack]

13. She "gets" to have sex and drugs?

As if she's just having one big party all up in there.

Sex and drugs is often the way prisoners know to survive the horror of prison.

We don't give daily beatings to people because they committed crimes, regardless how horrendous their crimes are. That attitude is one of the reasons our prison and criminal justice system is so screwed up. Most people in prison aren't young white women who killed their children. They're African American men whom most of society has abused through most of their lives and then thrown away and spit on and wish could be beaten and abused and degraded more than they already since, in their view, they are less than human because they committed crimes of varying degrees - crimes that we have no idea whether we would have committed if we were in their same situation.

Many of these people have done despicable things and deserve to be punished and punished harshly. But they don't deserve to be treated like animals or sub-humans. Prison, even under the best conditions, is hell - I wouldn't wish it on anyone. It's punishment enough.

[EffieBlack]

20. Perhaps the "code" applied by the women is more appropriate than that allowed in the men's prison

Punishment is one thing. Barbarity is another. And to see the latter encouraged on a progressive Democratic board is very disturbing.

[JimGinPA]

24. I Didn't "Encourage" Anything...

I merely pointed out a harsh reality.

Sorry my lack of empathy for someone who murdered their children in such a way that caused them to suffer in their final moments offends you. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

[raccoon]

18. The general public is like 20 or maybe 50 tats

The general public is like 20 or maybe 50 times harder on women who kill their children than on men.

We heard a lot more about Susan Smith and we did about that man in California who tried to kill his three daughters one of whom survived. And then there was a man who some months ago killed both of his teenage daughters. Just to get back at
His ex. And there are others.

I'm certainly not taking up for anybody who kills their own or anyone else's children. But I'm tired of the way as usual may get off so much easier with this.

[Orsino]

25. And we know that prison is generally a sucky, miserable experience.

For a molestation survivor suffering from depression it would be torture.

I get a whiff of slut-shaming, too. The (short) People story is careful to recount multiple sexual relationships with her captors, though they seem to have occurred sixteen years ago and more. The headline makes sure to put the sex first, with not a peep about whether those relationships were consensual.

I know punishment fetishists want to hear that she suffers, but I don't understand why.

[Not Ruth]

26. No death penalty, life is a worse punishment

She was nuts before (for killing her kids), prison probably did not help, but it keeps other children safer. By the way, she is getting drugs and sex in prison, wth?

[Lee-Lee]

30. I remember being in SC oftenwhen that happened

During the frenzied search for the boys before the truth came out someone had hung big yellow ribbons on every overpass on I-26.

After the truth came out nobody went out and took them down. For the next months, some over a year, they stayed there slowly deteriorating and fading and looking sadder and sadder every time you saw them, like a symbol of all the hope that was lost and the sadness and despair that replaced it.

I would get choked up seeing them on the overpasses every time, and I drove that route at least once a month during that period, watching them just slowly wither away.

[joshcryer]

35. My dad saw it on the news and immediately said she did it.

It took a few days for the police to sort it out and get her to confess and my dad just sat back in his chair, smoking a cigarette. He wasn't even happy to be right on that one.

(He was right about a lot of things a lot.)

[LeftInTX]

33. This is actually fairly old news

[joshcryer]

34. I thought she got out.

Glad to know / learn she got life for that. Looks like I confused her for Andrea Yates (who is still in a mental facility but not in jail).

Looks like she won't manage to get parole in 2024 when it comes up for sure.

To think OJ was a better prisoner than this monster...