Surviving victims of Susan Smith enter the parole matrix

Susan Smith’s name is etched into the minds of people across the world. Her first and last name is one of the most common in the entire country, but when someone mentions it, everyone knows who you are referencing.

Susan Smith has spent most of her adult life incarcerated in South Carolina since 1994 when she was charged and later convicted for murdering her two sons, Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months. But it did not stop there. She later attempted to cover up her crimes in the worst way imaginable. If drowning her own children and then reporting them missing was not horrific enough, Susan also claimed that a black man was responsible. The following days were filled with suspicion in every direction from Susan to the black community in their local area.

Law enforcement eventually put the pieces together and discovered that Smith was keeping many secrets and some of those secrets may have been her motive, such as an affair with a man who did not want children. Although Smith still denies that she murdered her sons for a relationship.

The crimes Susan Smith is convicted of are well known and easy to find additional information about. The focal point today is how do we help families who find themselves in the parole matrix. The father of Michael and Alex is divorced from Susan Smith, remarried and doing his best to carry on with life after a horrific crime that took his two sons. David has spent the last three decades working to move past it, only to throw himself right back in 1994.

Did anyone actually think that Susan Smith would be granted parole?
That is doubtful. I would assume that most people were expecting her parole to be denied, if not only for her horrific crimes, her prison record is lacking the type of action that the parole board normally wants to see. Smith’s lack of positive changes are not encouraging considering she also has a record of sexual conduct with prison staff and drug use. Susan Smith’s parole is currently a formality that must be addressed, by law.

The United States parole system allows prison inmates to be released back to the community, with supervision, before their court ordered release date. Sentencing reform groups across the country have advocated for more access and less red tape with the parole system. Many parole advocates believe that the system should be universally available to all inmates without limitations. Meanwhile, the parole system has failed the community so often that laws have been passed by victim advocates to attempt to ensure public safety.

Aside from the debate about how parole should work, there is another conversation that is often overlooked. The surviving victims, how do they fit into the current parole system? There are very few conversations about the parole system where you will find both sides of the debate in agreement, and the topic of victim statements is no different.

Advocates for parole have said that the victim has no role whatsoever in the ultimate parole decision nor is their presence at the hearing appropriate. Whereas victim advocates could not disagree more. Parole advocates claim that evaluating an individual for parole readiness is a completely different issue than the court process to convict and sentence the offender. Some parole advocates even claim that surviving victims should have to meet certain requirements in order to be present at the parole hearing, essentially placing mandates on surviving victims just as there are mandates on the offender.

Back to the surviving victims, where do they fit into a system that is primarily focused on the offender? From the arrest date until their release date, the nightmare of violent crime does not come with a parting gift of closure. Surviving victims carry the scars and keep their battle gear on at all times, they are given no other choice. Every court date, parole hearing, appeal and petition the offender makes will affect surviving victims, causing a landslide of anxiety that often feels like revictimization.

The overall justice system itself is not about closure, it is about validation and public safety. Validation that the truth was discovered and public safety to prevent additional victims.

Like many other surviving victims, David Smith, the father of Michael and Alex, will spend the rest of Susan Smith’s life and likely the rest of his own life fighting for his sons every two years by showing up to a parole hearing and addressing the horrific crimes that stole his children from him. The rest of the world is not there when David Smith wakes up every Christmas without his sons, they are not there on Michael or Alex’s birthday, nor is the public there when David Smith just wants to hold his boys one last time. But the parole process is a time we can be there for David Smith, and it is a time we should be there.

While the court process heavily analyzes the offender, the entire point of the process is to validate the truth and protect the public from further harm by the offender. The presence of surviving victims at the parole hearing serves as a living reminder of the actions that were taken by the offender. Time and circumstance can allow memories to fade and details to be forgotten.

Offenders are welcome to have legal representation at parole hearings, just as Susan Smith chose to do. Why should a parole board have uncontested hearings? Parole boards are making decisions that affect surviving victims and the entire local community where the offender will choose to reside.

The same attempt is being made at the trial level by attempting to deny access to victims or remove departments who support victims during the court process. Essentially removing the living accountability from the court process and the parole process, paving the way for lighter sentences overall.

The media, the public, the local community, friends, and family were all present for weeks leading up to the parole hearing for Susan Smith. Media reported consistently about the upcoming parole hearing and why it is so heartbreaking that Smith was given the possibility of a second chance to regain her freedom outside of the South Carolina prison system that she has called home for 30 years.

What about the formality of it all? Is it necessary to put surviving victims through the parole process if the inmate has not met the requirements to be granted parole? The victim is not on trial and the victim is not expected to meet any requirements to obtain proper justice and public safety.

The parole process could absolutely be streamlined to accommodate such situations where an inmate has not even began to meet the requirements for release. Fairness in the overall process could be more evenly distributed between the victim and the offender. The process will never be something that victims look forward to, but ensuring a sensible process could make victims feel more confident about the parole board and their decision to or not to release an inmate.

Families across the country endure this bi-yearly meeting that sadly resembles the movie Groundhog Day. A constant reminder of the pain and the time it has taken to heal from it. David Smith has spent the last 30 years tending to the wounds that are left from Susan Smith, only to be right back at day one, reliving every detail.

Parole policies differ from state to state. Several states no longer offer parole. Federal parole was also eliminated in 1987. The federal parole system and state parole systems that have abolished parole are still required to offer parole to anyone who was sentenced prior to eliminating the parole system.

The outpouring of support for David Smith and his family was bittersweet to see. Media and the public utilized social media to send a clear and concise message to the South Carolina parole board. The Mourning Feed hopes that the media and the public will give the same support to more surviving victims of horrific crimes. Parole hearings happen regularly and some parole hearings are available to watch live. Showing support for surviving victims has a variety of benefits, including your own public safety. Our voices can send a message to any politicians who seek to diminish standards of sentencing and parole that victims and advocates have fought to put in place.

This entire process can feel like a matrix, especially as many surviving victims are confronted with it years after healing to the best of their ability. If you want to oppose release of an inmate who has horrifically harmed you or your family, this is the matrix you are forced to enter. This isn’t about closure, it is about terror and preventing others from ever facing it in a dark alley.