UNITED STATES: DAVID SMITH, FATHER OF TWO BOYS DROWNED BY THEIR MOTHER, BREAKS DOWN ON THE WITNESS STAND
Record ID:
190136
UNITED STATES: DAVID SMITH, FATHER OF TWO BOYS DROWNED BY THEIR MOTHER, BREAKS DOWN ON THE WITNESS STAND
- Title: UNITED STATES: DAVID SMITH, FATHER OF TWO BOYS DROWNED BY THEIR MOTHER, BREAKS DOWN ON THE WITNESS STAND
- Date: 25th July 1995
- Summary: UNION, SOUTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES (JULY 25, 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV EXT COURTHOUSE 0.06 2. SV SUSAN SMITH ARRIVING AT COURT 0.25 3. SV SMITH'S ATTORNEY DAVID BRUCK ARRIVING AT COURT 0.36 4. SV DAVID SMITH ARRIVING AT COURT 0.51 5. SV TOMMY POPE, PROSECUTING ATTORNEY ARRIVING 0.59 6. SLV/SV LOCAL TOWNSPEOPLE PRESSING TO GET IN (2 SHOTS) 1.14 7. SV MEDIA (2 SHOTS) 1.22 8. SV PEOPLE COMING OUT OF COURTHOUSE DURING LUNCH BREAK 1.24 9. SCU LOCAL WOMAN SAYING SMITH SAID HE DIDN'T KNOW HOW HIS LIFE WOULD GO ON 1.43 10. SV LOCAL WOMAN SAYING SHE CAN'T TALK BECAUSE SHE IS TOO EMOTIONAL 1.54 11. SLV CAMERA BEING SET UP OUTSIDE COURTHOUSE 2.00 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 9th August 1995 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: UNION, SOUTH CAROLINA, UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA39D7UGO44R735JKGIV5PHT628
- Story Text: David Smith, the father of two boys who were drowned by their mother in a country lake, broke down on the witness stand on Tuesday (July 25) as he told about the night he learned his two young sons had been murdered.
A jury of nine men and three women must decide if the mother, Susan Smith, should be executed or or face life in prison for drowning the boys. The same jury convicted her last week of two counts of murder.
"All my hopes, all my dreams, everything that I had planned for the rest of my life came to an end that night -- and I didn't know what to do," Smith told a packed courtroom in a strained voice.
"Everything that I had planned on, my life with the kids, was gone.
And I didn't know how to handle it." David Smith's testimony is the centrepiece of the state's attempt to win a death sentence against Susan Smith, who has already been convicted of drowning her 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex in a South Carolina lake.
Circuit Judge William Howard called a short recess when Susan Smith and others in the courtroom wept at the words of the 24-year-old assistant supermarket manager, who learned about his ex-wife's arrest on television.
He later sobbed in front of the jury as prosecutors asked him to identify photographs of happy moments between himself and his oldest son.
For nine days last autumn, Smith stuck by his ex-wife when she maintained the boys had been abducted by a carjacker and even defended her against the suspicions of her own family. She eventually admitted to police that she had rolled her car into John D. Long Lake with the toddlers strapped inside.
The jury of nine men and three women must now decide whether she should be executed for her crime or face life in prison without the possibility of parole for 30 years.
Under a new state law that went into effect June 8, Smith would be able to choose between electrocution and lethal injection if sentenced to death.
Prosecutors, who need a unanimous verdict, are trying to portray Susan Smith as a callous manipulator who murdered her children when they became an obstacle to her affair with Tom Findlay, the son of a wealthy textile executive.
Earlier in his testimony, David Smith said one of his ex- wife's biggest concerns on October 25, the night their children disappeared, was whether he would get angry if she continued to see her boyfriend.
Although separated at the time, David and Susan Smith had agreed to stay at the home of her mother, Linda Russell, while authorities mounted a nationwide search for the two children.
"Susan made a very inappropriate statement or remark to me," said Smith, recalling the night of his sons' disappearance.
"We were driving and Susan said, 'I hope you don't get mad if Tom Findlay comes to see me at my mama's."' One week before the drownings, Findlay had broken off his relationship with Susan Smith for several reasons, including his reluctance to become a father.
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