Susan Smith's Ex-Husband Recounts the Moment She Admitted to Killing Their Kids

Mar. 15, 2025

Susan Smith’s ex-husbandDavid Smithvividly remembers the moment she admitted to drowning their two sons in 1994.

“She just casually, like you and I sitting here, said ‘I’m sorry.’ And that was about as far as it went,” David tells NBC News’ Craig Melvin in anupcomingDatelineepisodeairing at 9 p.m. ET on Friday, Feb. 14.

David goes on to explain that if he had “done what she did,” he would have asked for forgiveness.

“I asked her ‘Why did you do this? Why?’ And she said, ‘I don’t know why, but I’m sorry,’” David tells Melvin.

On Oct. 25, 1994, Susan, then 23, told police that a Black man had stolen her car with her and David’s two sons, Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months, inside. She spent the following nine days making emotional pleas on national television for her children to be returned home safely.

David Smith and Susan Smith.Dave Martin/AP; SC Department of Corrections

Dave Martin/AP; SC Department of Corrections

The story became international news and was featured on thecover of PEOPLE.

Susan was ultimately convicted of two counts of murder and is serving a life sentence in Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood, S.C. She wasdenied parolein November 2024 after serving 30 years of her sentence.

Susan Smith.Mug Shot

Prior to the decision, David spoke about the possibility of Susan being released, tellingtheTodayshow, “I don’t think she’ll ever be rehabilitated.”

He added: “I don’t think she’s, even to me, she’s never been really sorry for what she did.”

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Speaking with Melvin in theDatelineepisode, David shares why he wishes Susan had been sentenced to death instead of life in prison.

David Smith holding a photo of his two sons in 1995.Ruth Fremson/AP

Ruth Fremson/AP

“For myself, yes, because I wouldn’t have to be dealing with what’s coming up now,” he says. “I mean, Craig, I know that they said she had a tough life growing up and I’ve never tried to make light of that, but you don’t kill your children for what happened to you. I wanted an eye for an eye, but the jury saw different, so.”

“Yes, I have forgiven her, but again, that goes to my faith in God and that’s the way I was raised. That we have to forgive,” David said at the time. “But it sure doesn’t take away the act of what she did. It doesn’t make it any less, it doesn’t make it any easier. But I have forgiven her for what she did.”

source: people.com