All language subtitles for How.It.Really.Happened.S04E06_English

♪♪

[ Coos ]

Susan: I can't even describe
what I'm going through.

I mean, my heart is just so --
it just aches so bad.

[ Crying ]
I can't sleep. I can't eat.

I can't do anything
but think about them.

♪♪

♪♪

Welcome to
"How it Really Happened."

I'm Hill Harper.

In the fall of 1994,
the country was riveted

by the story of two missing
boys -- Michael and Alex Smith.

Their mother, Susan, told police

she was the victim
of a carjacking

and that the suspect drove off

with her young sons
still in the backseat.

For nine days,
investigators scoured the state,

then the country,

looking for clues
that could lead them

to the boys,
the car, or the carjacker.

Then, a break in the case --
one that would shock everyone.

Here's how it really happened.

♪♪

Reporter:
It's been a collective nightmare

for the small town
of Union, South Carolina.

Ermini: We have
two missing children here.

Their whereabouts
are unknown at this time.

David:
I received a phone call at work

that Michael and Alex
were missing.

I would like just to say
to whoever has my children

that they please --

I mean, please --
bring them home.

Wells: Susan Smith,
who's 23 years of age,

was driving on Highway 49
in Union County.

While stopped
at the traffic light,

a single black male
rushed up to her car

and opened the passenger door
and jumped into the vehicle.

And I just screamed.
I said, "What are you doing?"

He said, "Shut up and drive."

Wells: She had two small
children in the car --

a son, Michael,
who is 3 years of age,

a son Alexander,
who is 14 months of age,

in car seats
in the back of the vehicle.

My children -- they were
screaming, hollering, crying.

He directed Susan
to go down the road

that leads down
to John D. Long Lake,

made her get out of the car.

And I tried to get my children,

and I was, you know,
just begging him,

"Please let me take them,"
and he said no.

And then he continued
down the road

with, you know, Michael and Alex
still in the car.

I plead to the guy --
me and my wife plead to him

to please return our children
to us safely and unharmed.

We love our children very much.

Klaas:
The whole country was invested

in the recovery
of those two boys.

Throughout the past nine days,

law-enforcement authorities
around the country

followed up
on thousands of tips.

And nobody ever turned up
anything the whole time.

Wells: The information
is very sporadic.

We do not know exactly where
the car will turn up

or where the suspect may be.

We would meet with
law enforcement.

Law-enforcement authorities say

they have no good,
credible leads yet.

They are looking
at all possibilities,

including the possibility

that the mother might not
be telling the truth.

They had interviewed me early on

and given me a polygraph
and ruled me out,

but they kept
interviewing Susan.

[ Crying ]

Wells: We've had questions
about her story.

That's why we've talked to her
more than one time.

♪♪

One red flag early on
is you normally don't see

a carjacker taking children.

When they asked her what
she'd been doing that night,

she had different accounts.

That made the sheriff suspicious

because her story
just never stayed the same.

And there was that intersection

where she said
the carjacking occurred.

Pope: She was saying she was
sitting at a traffic light

when the carjacker
gets into her car,

but the light
in that particular area

was configured such the only way
it would be red

would be if another car
came to that intersection.

So there would have been
a witness.

She said there was no other car.

I said, "Are you sure?"

♪♪

She said, "I'm positive."

I knew there was something wrong
with her answer.

♪♪

She took several
polygraph tests.

She failed every single
one of them.

She was not telling the truth.

That's when the suspicions
absolutely started to rise.

I said --
I didn't know what to do.

I didn't know what was going on.

Reporter:
Police have been conducting

a parallel investigation,

looking for a stranger abductor,

but, also, keeping a very
close eye on family members

since most child abductions
happen

by somebody who is a relative.

We are going to look at
everything and rule out nothing.

The truth is going to come out.

♪♪

Reporter: For more than a week,
a desperate search

for two little boys
has riveted a nation.

From the parents
came impassioned pleas --

their hopes raised, then dashed
when leads failed to pan out.

Tonight, a shocking development.

I never gave up hope
of finding Michael and Alex.

I just wanted to get them back,
whatever it took.

We're going to make
a brief announcement.

Eftimiades: The sheriff
had made an announcement

that he was gonna hold
a press conference.

It was a large crowd there.

There will be no questions.

It was obvious that it was
going to be important news.

A dramatic development today

in the disappearance
of two little boys.

Even though people
had suspicions, to hear it,

I think it still was a shock.

Susan Smith has been arrested.

Smith is incarcerated
at an undisclosed location.

Reporter:
Did she confess?

Did she tell you
where the car was, Sheriff?

[ Indistinct shouting ]

♪♪

David:
I found out about, you know,

what had happened
over the TV.

We hadn't heard anything
prior to that.

What was going through my mind?

I don't know.

Reporter:
Susan Smith's tearful allegation

that a black man
had carjacked her car

with her children inside

turned out to be a lie.

She had a lot of people fooled.

[ Static crackles ]

♪♪

[ Crying ]

She tried to be the victim,
and she was crying,

but she wasn't crying
real tears.

I want to say to my babies

[Crying] that
your mama loves you so much.

Everyone reported that

Susan Smith was
a really good mother.

When we found out the truth,

it made it
all the more shocking.

♪♪

Reporter: Her tearful pleas
for their return

captured the hearts
of the nation.

My children are my life,
and they just got to be okay.

They just got to come back okay.

Reporter: Eventually,
under pressure from police,

Smith admitted it was all a lie.

Brackett: She played
the distraught, grieving mother

and was able
to do remarkably well at it,

considering that she knew the
whole time where her kids were.

Eftimiades: She took several
polygraph tests,

and it always
came back inconclusive

when they asked the question.

"Do you know where
your children are?"

Her husband took
polygraph tests

and came out clean.

He had no idea.

I believed her 100%, okay?

Not 99%, not 95% --

I believed Susan 100%.

I believed in her,
and a whole lot of people did.

Now, the police didn't.

The police knew from the get-go

that her story
had a big hole in it.

The police knew
more than we knew,

and they were holding their
cards very close to their vest.

There was just too many things
that didn't add up.

♪♪

Stewart: Very first night,

Roy Paschal,
the forensic artist, said,

"She's involved in this thing,
as far as I can tell."

Paschal: First thing that
caused me alarm --

when I was sitting with Susan
and her husband, David, came in,

he was comforting her,
holding her close,

and she was crying.

As soon as he left the door,
she turned around, and she said,

"Well, let's just
get back to it."

So it was almost like a light
switch, that switch in emotion.

It gave me pause

because that emotional change
can be an indication,

because she knows --
she knows the real deal.

So I talked to the sheriff,
and I said,

"I have reason to believe that
Susan's not telling the truth.

Her children --
they are in danger."

And he was right.

And that's when the decision
was made

that we would run
a parallel investigation.

Jordan: The police were working
very cleverly

with what they call
a parallel investigation.

They were following all the
leads according to Susan's story

while also watching her
very carefully, very closely.

And the more we'd analyze what
was going on minute by minute,

it became pretty obvious.

[ Crying ] My heart is just
so -- it just aches so bad.

Stewart: The sheriff

and the head of the FBI
in South Carolina and I

would get together,

watching Susan Smith's
"performance,"

I guess I will call it,
on television.

Harris:
She tried to be the victim.

If you go back and look at all
the newsreels, she was crying,

but she wasn't
crying real tears.

I want to say to my babies

[Crying] that
your mama loves you so much.

Jordan:
Seeing Susan Smith appearing
in these press conferences,

doing what we called
in criminology "scrunch crying."

She screwed her face up
with emotion,

but no tears are coming.

That usually indicates
that they're faking it.

Hey. That feel good?

Stewart: She was one character
on news media

and then joking
with the agents.

Harris: She was a little,
you know, friendly.

♪♪

You know, I was 44 at that time.

She said, "Well, you look
good to be 44 years old."

And she wanted to talk about,
you know, going to the beach,

and she's acting like we're
having a pizza party, you know?

Well, it's totally out of
character for a grieving mother.

I think the Sheriff's Department
played it well.

They didn't believe
about the carjacking,

and they would
tell her little things.

The number-one thing that
bothered them

was that intersection where she
said the carjacking occurred.

And I was stopped
at a red light,

and just out of nowhere,
this black guy came up.

And he just opened the car
and jumped in the car.

And that just didn't happen.

♪♪

And the turning point
was November the 2nd.

And I said, "Let me ask you --
could it possibly be

that the carjacking occurred
somewhere else

other than where
you're telling me?"

Pete Logan worked
slowly and slowly with her.

Logan:
And I said, "The red light

that you were supposedly
stopped at --

it will never turn red
if there's no cars there,

and you're telling me
there wasn't any cars there.

I got a feeling it may have
happened somewhere else

and there's some reason
you don't want to tell me."

Jordan: This would allow her

to basically trip herself up,
recant her story.

We call that giving a suspect
enough rope to hang themselves.

Logan:
She jumped on that and said,

"Yes,
it happened somewhere else,

but I didn't want to tell you."

I knew then,
if she changed her story,

we got our foot
in the front door.

Then she tried to say that it
had happened at some rural place

and she was meeting somebody.

She'd moved her location
13 miles.

Well, we counteracted that.

Stewart: We told her that
that could not have happened,

because where she said now
that it happened

had been
under heavy surveillance

for a drug operation.
[ Siren wailing ]

We said, "Hey, we had
a road block there that night,"

which we didn't,

but we were trying to find out
any information

that would lead us
to where those kids were.

We're trying to hope that
the kids were alive somewhere.

Pope: I believed that it was
some type of domestic situation,

that most likely
she had the kids

with either a friend
or a family member.

Every night,
we'd have a meeting,

and the sheriff and the chief

and all of the agents
would be there.

We were getting anxious.

Stewart:
We knew she had lied.

I'd had about enough of this.

It was time for it
to come to a head.

She was breaking down
pretty fast.

Wells:
She realized it was time.

She just told me
that she was so ashamed.

And there was
a lynch-mob mentality

because she'd put people
through so much.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

♪♪

Hey. That feel good?

Mm!

[ Laughs ]

Reporter: For nine days,
hundreds of volunteers

joined federal, state,
and local investigators

in a coast-to-coast search
for the boys

and for a suspect
who never was.

Callebs: I arrived
in Union, South Carolina,

the day the news broke.

When I got out of the car,
I just remember

people running everywhere,
people screaming --

looking around like,
"What is going on here?"

Reporter: The same people
who had prayed for Susan Smith

for more than a week

loudly jeered her arrival
at the Union County Courthouse.

[ Indistinct shouting ]
Stewart:
That crowd was very upset.

We know she has lied.

Brackett: In fact, there had
never been a kidnapping.

The children had never
left Union.

♪♪

Sheriff Wells and I
discussed it.

[ Crying ]

The idea was for her to admit
that she was lying,

just tell her,

"Look, it's basically time
to tell us the truth."

We had to bring this thing
to a head.

We felt that something
had to be done,

the case had to move on,

that we would confront Susan
on that day,

and that's exactly what we did.

♪♪

They had taken Susan off
to interview her again.

I think that was the only time
that maybe I wasn't with her.

Harris:
We had come up with a plan.

I had picked her up.
Sheriff was ready.

And that is when
they reveal their trap.

Wells: I told her that we had
already discredited her story

and that I would tell
the world that it was not true.

Jordan: "Susan, now that
you've been caught in a lie,

why don't you
just tell us the truth?"

She was breaking down
pretty fast.

Wells: She asked if I would pray
with her at that time,

and I did, and at the end
of the prayer, she was crying,

and she just told me
that she was so ashamed,

that she was so ashamed.

She was crying hysterically
during that period of time.

♪♪

Wells: Then she said,
"You don't understand.

My children are not alright."

[ Static crackles ]

And that's when
she told us the truth.

Harris: She wasn't up there
maybe 20, 25 minutes.

Sheriff come out and said,
"Hey, she told me,

'The car's in the lake --
kids are in the car.'"

That was her words.

That's what we needed.

I remember that
just like it was yesterday.

Reporter:
[ Speaking indistinctly ]

Susan Smith has been arrested
and will be charged

with two counts of murder
in connection

with the deaths
of her children --

Michael, 3,
and Alexander, 14 months.

Jordan:
When the truth came out

that they had arrested
Susan Smith

for the murder
of her own children,

people were floored.

Stewart: You could just hear
this gasp in the crowd.

I'll never forget that.

The vehicle, a 1990
Mazda driven by Smith,

was located
late Thursday afternoon

in Lake John D. Long near Union.

Two bodies were found
in the vehicle's backseat.

The sense of absolute shock
and horror --

it reverberated
through the American public.

Reporter:
She signed a confession saying

she strapped the boys
into their car seats

and let the vehicle
roll into a lake.

[ Babbling ]

♪♪

Pope: And I got a call
that the boys had been found

in John D. Long Lake,

so I got in the car
and went to John D. Long Lake.

Paschal: Susan's car
was maybe 108 feet out,

in dark, deep water.

When cars sink,
they sink nose down

because the engine's heavier.

Harris:
We sent divers down to the lake.

One time, we missed it.

The divers went out
a little further.

Brackett: It was quiet.

Everybody was shocked --

the sight of the vehicle
emerging from that dark water.

♪♪

Harris: As it was coming out
of the water,

you could see
the lights start coming up.

The headlights were still on.

We pulled it out...

and the kids were in the car.

And that was probably something
that I will never forget

if I live to be 100 --

those two little children
being in the car.

And one had kicked his shoe off
in the struggle.

Brackett: Just a horrifying
moment of realization

that this is really happening,
this is where they are,

and the children are gone.

Susan:
I was stopped at a red light.

I was stopped at a red light.

Out of nowhere,
this black guy came up.

This black guy came up.

Told me, "Shut up,
or I'll kill you."

It terrifies me to think,
had she stuck with her story,

we may still to this day
be looking for the boys.

♪♪

Reporter: The Smith family
held a visitation

at the Holcombe Funeral Home
in Union.

Scores of local residents
filed in to pay their respects.

A funeral for the two young boys
is scheduled for Sunday.

David: You know, they say
that the hardest thing in life

to deal with is, you know,
the loss of a child.

Well, I was trying to deal
with the loss of two...

[ Sniffles ]

...that happened
at the same time...

by their mother.

Those little boys --
they loved you.

They trusted you.

You know, they didn't do
anything wrong

to deserve
what you did to them.

The enormity of the pain --

I just wanted it to stop.

But, you know,
now I had to stand up

for Michael and Alex

as their father --

anything that I could do
within my power.

She thought this was going to be
her ticket to happiness.

Reporter: Prosecutors will argue
that she's a heartless killer

who disposed of her children

in order to snare
a rich boyfriend.

She had been seeing this guy.

Pope:
He had written her letters --

"If only you
didn't have children."

♪♪

♪♪

This is two lives lost, wasted.

Callebs: You know,
you just close your eyes

and just wish
it wasn't the case.

♪♪

Welcome back.

The world was shocked

when they learned the news
that Susan Smith had lied.

Her children had not been taken
by a carjacker,

as she had claimed.

The truth was she murdered them.

Susan drove the car into a lake
where the boys were trapped,

and they drowned.

The prosecutor called her
a cold-blooded killer,

but the defense
told a different story.

Reporter: Susan Smith,
the 23-year-old mother

who said that her two children
were kidnapped

when her car was stolen
a week away

has confessed
to killing them.

The news came out
that Susan had confessed.

Christopher:
I don't think that anyone

or any community

could ever be prepared for --
for that.

Callebs: She comes on TV

and really played in
to the heartstrings

of people across the country.

♪♪

I'm gonna be honest with you.

I had no idea that a mother
would do something like that.

It hurts so bad,

to see those poor little boys
out there playing

and us believing
she was a good mother.

It was just so brutal,
finding out the truth.

She's making those protests
that,

"Oh, I love
those little boys so much."

Well, you murdered them.

You know,
you drowned your own children.

Reporter: People in Union
were horrified to learn

that the children were alive

when the car
went into the water.

You always ask yourself, "Why?
Why would she do this?

What motivated her to drive
her children into the lake

and then lie about it?"

Ooh!
That's just fine!

People said she was
a very devoted mother.

That's what makes this
all just so heartbreaking,

because she really did
seem to love the children,

and she did take
really good care of them.

Susan:
Look at Mama, Michael.

David: Susan, you know,
she was a great mother.

She always made sure
they were clean, fed.

Jordan:
So when we found out the truth

about what happened
to these young boys,

it made it
all the more shocking.

Something snapped in her,
and something went wrong,

because...

the Susan I knew
would not have done it.

♪♪

The motive of this crime
was suicide, not anything else.

Stewart: Her defense was that
she had been abused

and that it was emotional issues
and mental issues

that caused her to do it.

♪♪

Susan sank.

I think the illness Susan has
was responsible, not...

♪♪

...not Susan.

David Bruck showed me
Susan Smith's confession,

let me read it.

Reporter: The confession paints
the picture

of a distraught,
desperate woman.

In it, Susan Smith says
she drove to John D. Long Lake,

considering killing herself.

Susan Vaughan,
as she was born in 1971,

grew up in Union,

and her parents divorced
when she was very young.

And, sadly, just after
her parents divorced,

her father committed suicide
when she was only 6 years old.

Reporter: Her father committed
suicide when she was a child.

She allegedly tried
to kill herself twice,

and court documents allege
her stepfather molested her.

Eftimiades:
This was the kind of family

where you don't tell anyone
what's really going on,

and I think that she grew up
feeling like

she had to put on a big smile

and act like everything
was fine,

and I think she was crumbling.

She got married young and had
the two children right away,

and from the beginning
of her marriage,

both she cheated
and her husband cheated,

and it was -- she was a mess.

Callebs: The day
Susan Smith killed her kids,

she drove to John D. Long Lake,

which has
a very steep drop-off on a ramp,

and she said she went there
fully intending to kill herself.

Reporter: Smith says, "I wanted
to end my own life so bad

and was in my car,

ready to go down that ramp
into the water."

Eftimiades: And she sat
at the top of the ramp,

and she started to go down
and stopped

and went a little further
and stopped.

And at that point,
she got out of the car,

and she let
the emergency brake go.

Brackett: And walked away with
her children in the back,

and it just rolled down
into the water.

[ Water burbling ]

♪♪

Pope: The defense tried
to create a botched suicide,

but it just didn't mesh.

If I'm rolling down and I now
change my mind about suicide,

just stop the car.

She was able to rescue Susan.

She could've rescued
the boys.

What we believed
that the motive was,

was that she was having
a relationship with a young man

and the children
were in the way.

Reporter: Prosecutors will argue
that she's a heartless killer

who disposed of her children in
order to snare a rich boyfriend.

Brackett: She worked at
a company in Union called Conso,

and that was one of the largest
employers in the county.

And she fell in love
with the owner's son.

Jordan: Tom Findlay was known
as "the catch."

She thought she might be the one
to actually land him.

I didn't find out that Susan
was seeing someone else

until after we were
legally separated.

She had been seeing this guy
while we were together --

you know,
a very wealthy family.

Callebs:
She felt she was in a marriage

that simply wasn't working.

She thought this was going to be
her ticket to happiness.

Jordan: About 10 days before
the children went missing,

he breaks up with her.

Pope: He had written her
letters, you know, of,

"If only you
didn't have children."

"Susan, I could really
fall for you,

but there are some things about
you that aren't suited for me,

and, yes, I am speaking
about your children."

♪♪

Brackett:
I don't think Tom Findlay knew

when he wrote "the children"
in that letter --

certainly he had no idea
that he was lighting a fuse.

Harris: I think that --
that shook her,

and she wanted to figure out
a way not to have the kids.

Pope: I firmly believe
and continue to believe

that she made
a horrible, horrible choice,

based on her thought,

if she could be rid of those
children and rid from David,

that she was gonna be
with Tom Findlay.

And there were so many kind of
behind-the-Scenes subtleties.

The night she killed the kids,

she's wearing
the Auburn sweatshirt.

And Tom went to Auburn,
had given her that sweatshirt.

And in the car,
when we pulled the car up --

all of her wedding albums,
maternity clothes.

All of the stuff
is in the back of the car.

It's like she's burying
her old life.

Why did you happen to have

everything associated
with your old life in the car,

along with the kids?

That can't be coincidence.

There's a message here.

Pope: Basically, she had tied up
one tight package --

other than having David
perhaps in the car --

everything that was a barrier to
her being with this other guy.

When Susan Smith was remorseful,
why is she remorseful?

Is she remorseful
because of Michael and Alex,

or is she remorseful because
now everything she'd laid out,

everything she'd done,
had fallen apart?

The big question was,
"What was going through her mind

at the time
of the actual incident?"

And the only person
who really knows was her.

The plan was to see if we could
basically re-enact

the car rolling down the ramp
into the lake.

[ Water splashes ]

It would literally
take your breath away.

♪♪

Reporter: Supermarket tabloids
have called her

"The Most Hated Mom in America."

23-year-old Susan Smith is
charged with drowning her sons,

3-year-old Michael
and 14-month-old Alex.

What Susan Smith did
to her children

reinforced my belief in evil.

It was just
absolutely unfathomable.

The anger grew over the months
until the trial began,

and then it was a hysteria.

Reporter:
Smith dreads the trial,

not because of the possible
outcome, her attorney says,

but because
she'll have to once again

be in the same room
with the boy's father.

Seeing Susan at the trial...

[breathes sharply]

...was very difficult.

Sitting not that far away
from her

was very tempting
[breathes sharply] to harm her.

But I knew I had to
just stay focused

on who we were
seeking justice for.

Just like once again
to emphasize to the public

that you remember the two
little boys who lost their life

and who are the real victims
through all of this.

This is far and away the most
highly publicized criminal case

in the history
of South Carolina.

It's a media blitz,

and it was just unbelievable
to live through it.

[ Indistinct conversations ]

This all took place
at the same time

that O.J. was taking place
on the West Coast,

and all of that
is being put on television.

Reporter: The trials of
Susan Smith and O.J. Simpson

have captured
the attention of the world.

[ Indistinct shouting ]

Callebs:
O.J. Was a circus.

That played out
in front of cameras every day.

And then you have this case.

The defense made the motion --

they objected
to the presence of cameras.

It might affect
how the witnesses testified.

Reporter: This is the last video
that you will see

from the inside of the courtroom

in the Susan Smith trial
here in Union, South Carolina.

Court will take five minutes

so that the cameras
can be removed at this time.

There were no cameras
in the courtroom on this one.

♪♪

Christopher: I remember
the opening day of the trial,

and I was out there early
in this crowd of people,

and it was so crowded,
I could barely breathe.

[ Chuckles ]

Reporter:
Confessed murderer Susan Smith

was described
as depressed and suicidal,

but technically competent
to stand trial.

She didn't testify.

I don't know how well
she would've done on the stand.

I would've gone through
the events of that night

and the mechanics
of those boys' deaths.

"So when
you got to John D. Long Lake,

what did you do then?

When you got out of the car

and you let the car go down
without you,

what did you do then?"

Those are the type questions
I would want to ask

because I think, at that point,
they would see the true Susan.

But I think that's exactly

why Susan Smith
never took the stand.

Jordan:
This was a textbook trial,

and it was over and done
within five days,

which isn't really surprising
considering that she confessed.

You know, people said,
"Well, she confessed.

Why do you even have a trial?"

But till the jury comes back,
you're never sure.

It's always tough when
you're waiting for a jury.

Time just moves so slowly.

Come on in.
We do have a verdict.

Reporter:
The courtroom was hushed.

Susan Smith was awaiting
word of her fate.

The jury walked in and handed
its verdict to the court clerk.

She said in a soft voice,
"Indictment for murder.

The verdict --
guilty of murder."

♪♪

The same words were repeated
a second time.

Susan Smith had been convicted
of murder

in the deaths of her two sons.

I don't think anyone
was surprised by that.

She expected this.

I expected this.

It's just hard to hear.

The big question
was just the penalty.

Would she be given
the death penalty?

Reporter: Next week,
the same jury will meet

to hear testimony
and consider her sentence.

She could get life in prison

with the chance of parole
after 30 years

or death in the electric chair.

There was a ferocious fight
on both sides.

You could have spoken to
a dozen people on the street,

and it would've been split
both ways.

I don't think it's right that
she done something like that,

and she shouldn't go free
for doing it,

but I don't think they should
take her life for doing it,

because it's not gonna
bring her kids back.

Take her in there and just
throw her in the darn lake.

Death penalty's
too good for her.

I wanted the death penalty
for Susan.

Susan:
Don't you look cute?!

You need to give up your life

because of the manner
in which you took their life.

Callebs:
I just felt so sorry for him.

I mean, he [scoffs] --
he did nothing in all this

and lost everything.

♪♪

Reporter:
Now, Susan Smith's ex-husband,

David Smith,

arrived here
at court earlier today,

and he is openly supporting
the prosecution's effort

to seek the death penalty.

Tommy Pope informed that he
was gonna put me on the stand.

It was one of the most
emotionally draining times

I'd ever experienced.

It was the most difficult thing
I've had to do, I guess,

since I buried
Michael and Alex.

Brackett:
His testimony was just brutal.

He's got to bare his soul
about how, you know,

his whole life
had just come undone.

Pope:
It is -- It's gut-wrenching,

and I actually ended up
back in my office

and had a good cry myself.

Reporter: At one point,
he said, when he learned

that Susan had killed
his two kids,

that really all his dreams,
all his hopes --

everything came to
an end that day.

♪♪

David:
And at that moment, my world...

my life had just, as I knew it,
had just stopped.

[ Sighs ]

♪♪

Pope: That's real people
and real, you know, children,

and so what you have to do
in the courtroom

if you're doing your job
is bring the reality to them.

♪♪

The plan was to see if
we could basically re-enact

the car rolling down the ramp
into the lake.

We looked around and shopped
until we found a used car

that was the same make, model --

even got
the same burgundy color.

Because this jury's got to know
what really, really happened.

Reporter:
That was the reasoning behind

the re-enactment of the crime
in John D. Long Lake.

There was a camera
inside the car to presumably

give the children's view
of what happened.

[ Water splashes ]

[ Water burbling ]

♪♪

Pope: The camera was mounted

between where the car seats
were strapped back in the car.

You see the water coming up
through the vents

and coming over the camera --

what the boys would've been
facing, strapped in that seat.

[ Water burbling ]

It would literally
take your breath away.

The car, you know, going down --
it took about six minutes or so.

She had six minutes
to do something

other than cook up a story
about a black carjacker.

Reporter: Susan Smith
is in a real fight for her life.

Ought to be going
to the chair!

I think that, right now,

unless something
dramatic happens,

Susan Smith will be
the first woman sentenced

to the electric chair in
this state in the last 40 years.

♪♪

Reporter:
The time has come to decide

what Susan Smith deserves
for what she did.

Pope: I was asking for
the death penalty.

The betrayal of Susan Smith
leading all of us on

was probably the strongest
factor toward the death penalty.

Christopher:
And, of course, the defense

was pushing hard back
against the death penalty.

Clearly not really
a capital case.

It's not gonna do any good.

It's only gonna cause more pain.

Reporter:
Reports claim, as a teenager,

she twice attempted suicide

after supposedly being abused
by her stepfather,

but no charges were filed,
and the case was dropped.

Smith now confronts paying
the ultimate price

for ending the lives of her sons

in what she says
was a suicidal panic.

There's been so many different
sides of Susan Smith

portrayed in the newspapers
and on TV

that people really don't know
what to think.

They don't know
what kind of person she is.

Pope:
The way the case had played out,

I felt
it was gonna be difficult.

♪♪

The jury's been deliberating
the fate of Susan Smith

for just about
an hour and 45 minutes now.

Callebs: There was always
tension in the courtroom.

She fully knew
what she had done.

You committed a heinous crime,

and you're going to
have to pay the price for it.

The question is,
will you pay with your life?

We turn around --
the jury comes in.

And that's the hardest time
because it's out of your hands.

You've done everything
you can do.

Wells: I tried to watch
the faces of the jurors.

Those 12 people were the
consciousness of Union County.

They --
They voted their convictions,

and they came back
with something I think

that probably speaks for
most of the county right now.

After deliberating
just 2 1/2 hours,

the 12-member panel decided
Smith will not be put to death.

♪♪

Instead, the jury opted
for life in prison.

Pope:
The jury chose to give her life.

I think they thought she'd have
to think about what she did.

Reporter: It was 12-0,
a unanimous vote,

all for life in prison.

I was in the courtroom when
the clerk read the verdicts.

David Bruck,
Susan Smith's attorney,

had his left arm
around her waist,

and when the verdict was read,

she kind of put her arm
around him,

and they kind of hugged
for a moment.

This case was an awful human
tragedy from the beginning,

and it still is,
and it always will be.

♪♪

And I think the jury
made the wise decision.

It has taken a tremendous toll.

I know it's taken a toll
on all of us.

I know it's taken a toll
on David.

Reporter: David Smith,
Susan's former husband,

just looked straight ahead.

Kind of a wave
seemed to rush over him,

when someone hears
the kind of news

that they don't want to hear.

Me and my family, of course,
are disappointed

that the death penalty wasn't --
wasn't the verdict,

but it wasn't our choice on
what penalty she was to receive.

Roberts: As a parent myself,
I feel real sorry for him,

and there's nothing anybody
could do to bring his kids back.

♪♪

If we could, we would have.

♪♪

You know,
Michael and Alex were my life.

I don't -- I don't --

I don't understand
how she did it,

you know, even now,
because she was a good mother.

♪♪

I've been...very blessed.

♪♪

My children --
they are fully aware

of who Michael and Alex were

and, you know,
what happened to them.

♪♪

[ Birds chirping ]

♪♪

[ Bird calling ]

Christopher: I remember
going to that lake years ago.

It was beautiful.

After the incident,
it became a memorial.

People came, I guess,

in a quest for some sense of --
of understanding.

I go back.
I pay my respects to the kids.

You just wonder what could've
happened to those boys

had they lived,

and I'm sure I'm not the only
one to ask that question.

David: Michael and Alex --

they're, you know,
part of my heart.

[ Sighs ]
And, you know, part of me,

even right now,

feels like
I should be smiling...

[ Chuckles ]

...because it was
such a joyous time.

All:
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

[ Cheers and applause ]

[ Woman laughs ]

[ Crying ] But I guess because
the outcome is hard.

♪♪

There is a memorial

to 3-year-old Michael
and 14-month-old Alex Smith

at the lake where they drowned.

After learning the truth
about what happened to his sons,

David Smith says
he considered suicide,

but made it through
the dark times

with the support of his family.

He has not spoken to Susan
since she was convicted in 1995.

Susan Smith is serving
a life sentence

for the murder
of her two sons.

She will be eligible for parole
in November of 2024.

I'm Hill Harper.

Thanks for watching.

♪♪