Susan Smith, the killer’s mom, was convicted of a new disciplinary crime after conversing with a documentary filmmaker weeks before her first parole hearing.
The 53-year-old, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1995 for murdering her two children, was charged with communicating with a victim or witness of a crime on August 26 and convicted on October 3, according to Chrysti Shain, director of communications for the South Carolina Department of Corrections.
Smith consented to give the filmmaker contact information for friends, relatives, and victims, including her former spouse. According to the incident report, the director placed money into Smith’s account for “Calls and Canteen,” with his name obscured.
Inmates in the South Carolina Department of Corrections are not permitted to conduct telephone or in-person interviews, although they may send letters.
Smith will be eligible for release on November 4, 30 years after confessing to drowning her two kids, Michael Daniel, 3, and Alexander Tyler, 14 months, in a South Carolina lake.
Smith and the filmmaker talked about conducting an interview, filming a documentary, and how to get compensated for it.
They also talked about Smith’s crime and what happened before and after it, such as “what was in the trunk of the car when it went into the water and her plans to jump from a bridge while holding the boys, but one woke up,” according to the incident report.
Smith lost her phone, tablet, and canteen privileges for 90 days beginning October 4. The charge is not criminal; rather, it is an internal disciplinary conviction.
It was Smith’s first disciplinary action in nearly a decade.
“SCDC convicts are given pills that are secured for correctional usage. “The tablets can be used to make monitored phone calls and send monitored electronic messages,” Shain explained. “They are treated as a privilege. The agency will evaluate when and whether inmate Smith will be eligible for a tablet again.”
Smith’s phone discussions with the filmmaker are not the first to garner attention. According to the New York Post, Smith has courted nearly a dozen suitors through monitored jailhouse communications and phone conversations over the last three years.
Criminal defense attorney Philip Holloway previously told Fox News Digital that her chances of being released early are “unlikely.”
“I expect that she would be denied parole — the facts of this case are horrific,” Holloway told reporters. “I see it’s unlikely that she would be released into society.”
It’s unclear whether Smith’s most recent conviction will affect her upcoming release.
Content Source: Killer mom Susan Smith disciplined behind bars weeks before parole hearing