A South Carolina parole board rejected conditional release for notorious child murderer Susan Smith.

Susan Smith appeared before the SC Board of Paroles and Pardons on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, virtually from Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood. She became eligible for parole on Nov. 4 after serving one-third of her life sentence. A jury sentenced Smith to life in prison after she confessed to rolling her car down the boat ramp at John D. Long Lake with her 3-year-old and 14-month-old boys in the backseat on Oct. 25, 1994.

The incident thrust Union into the national spotlight after Smith concocted a lie that led to a nationwide search for her children.

Smith appeared at the McCloud's home Oct. 25, 1994, falsely claiming that while she was stopped at a traffic light near Monarch Mill, a Black man climbed into the passenger seat of her car, put a gun in her side and demanded she "shut up and drive." She told authorities after traveling several miles down the road, the man told her to stop the car and get out. She claimed she asked to get Michael, 3, and Alexander, 14 months, out of the car but the man told her he didn't have time for it and drove off.

Nine days later, Smith confessed that she had planned to take her own life that night, but as she stood on the boat ramp and John D. Long Lake, she couldn't go through with it. Still, she sent the vehicle with the boys strapped in their car seats down the ramp into the water, then ran to the McClouds with her lie.

In 1995, a jury found her guilty of two counts of murder for her sons' deaths and sentenced her to life in prison.

Michael and Alexander's father, David Smith, previously told News 13 he didn't plan to prepare comments for Wednesday's hearing and planned to speak to the board from his heart.

"I want to look at them. I want to look them in the eyes the whole time I'm speaking to them and hopefully that will make an impact," Smith said.

Smith planned to tell the board that the 30 years Susan Smith has served is not enough punishment for the two young lives she took.

Former 16th judicial circuit solicitor, now Rep. Tommy Pope, had reached out to the SC Board of Paroles and Pardons, encouraging them to deny Smith's request for parole. Pope was there the night the car with the boys' bodies still inside was lifted from the lake.

"What I saw were grown men crying, you know? And I think it was, the people that tried, citizens tried so hard to find those boys for, you know, nine days and been led on by Susan. And I mean, it was a layer of betrayal. And now to know, you know, hope beyond hope, we weren't going to recover them alive," said Pope.

The seven-member SC Board of Paroles and Pardons, one appointed by the governor from each Congressional District, must have a two-thirds majority to grant parole.

Among the items the Board of Paroles and Pardons could consider was Susan Smith's record before and during her incarceration. In August 2024, Smith was charged with communicating with a victim and or witness after having telephone calls with a documentary filmmaker about her crimes. That's against Department of Corrections rules in South Carolina. She's also been charged with possessing unauthorized drugs and mutilation during her incarceration, as well as having sex with two corrections officers.