SC judge refuses Susan Smith’s appeal, says mom convicted in sons’ deaths needs better reasons

SC judge rejecting Susan Smith’s appeal

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A judge plans to throw out Susan Smith’s request for a new trial unless the South Carolina mom convicted of leaving her two young sons in her car to drown in 1994 can come up with better arguments.

Smith filed a handwritten appeal earlier this year, claiming unspecified allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and said she was abused by her now ex-husband, David Smith.

She didn’t detail the abuse and a prosecutor who tried her said an investigation did not find any wrongdoing by her ex-husband.

Circuit Judge Lee Alford has given Smith 20 days to give better reasons to allow her appeal to continue. Smith, who is representing herself, has refused interview requests from The Associated Press since she was convicted in 1995 of leaving 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex strapped in their car seats as she rolled her car into a Union County lake in the northwestern part of the state.

The case incensed the black community because Smith claimed a black man carjacked her and drove off with the children.

Prosecutors said Smith killed her sons because a wealthy, well-connected man she was having an affair with cut off the relationship.

In her appeal, Smith mentions “battered woman’s syndrome,” which is normally used when someone kills a spouse or boyfriend because they are being abused.

Smith’s former husband hasn’t returned several messages from AP. But prosecutor Kevin Brackett said Monday he had never heard anything bad about David Smith.

“David Smith has a right to put this behind him,” Brackett said. “Every time this case comes back up, it picks at a scab.”

Prosecutors sought the death penalty for Smith, and Brackett pointed out her lawyers vigorously fought to save her life. Smith’s lawyers brought in testimony she had sex with her stepfather and several other men to argue she was depressed and intended to stay in the car and commit suicide with her sons, but decided to jump out after releasing the emergency brake.

The appeal also said Smith’s “Amanda Rights” were violated, apparently referring to her Miranda right to have a lawyer present when police question a suspect. And the papers show Smith still sometimes dots her ‘i’s with little circles — just like she did in her written confession more than 15 years ago.