Convicted child killer Susan Smith should never walk free, according to the prosecutor who secured her life sentence nearly three decades ago.
Smith horrified the nation in 1994 when she strapped her two young sons—3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander—into their car seats and let her vehicle roll into John D. Long Lake in Union, South Carolina. The boys drowned as Smith watched her car sink over the course of six agonizing minutes.
Tommy Pope, the former prosecutor who put Smith behind bars and now serves as a Republican state legislator, told Fox News Digital that justice demands she remain locked up. “Susan, to me, needs to remain incarcerated as punishment for what she’s done,” Pope said. While he admitted she might not pose a future danger, he stressed that the gravity of her crime requires permanent consequences.
Smith is eligible for parole again in 2026 after being denied in 2024. Pope and Smith’s ex-husband, David, have both appeared at hearings to oppose her release. Pope emphasized her manipulative tendencies, saying, “It’s always somebody else’s fault. She’s either a victim or a princess.”
