Life behind bars will remain lonely for killer Susan Smith
Convicted child-killer Susan Smith is making national headlines. Again.
Apparently the 31-year-old resident of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, who was sentenced to life in prison there after confessing to and being found guilty in 1995 of murdering her two young sons, finds life behind bars to be, well, lonely.
She placed an online personal ad on a pen-pal Web site last month. For $40, Smith posted the ad at www.writeaprisoner.com. In the ad she said, "I hope to receive letters from those who are not judgmental and who are sincere. I love rainbows, Mickey Mouse, the beach, mountains and waterfalls. I consider myself to be sensitive, caring and kind-hearted. I'm currently serving a life sentence on the charge of murder."
Response
The ad generated thousands of hits on the site and hundreds of e-mails that were forwarded to Smith, said a spokesman for the Edgewater, Fla.-based Web site.
The response led to the site's asking Smith to withdraw the ad because it was becoming a distraction from the site's mission to help inmates make contacts in the outside world and because the media attention was overwhelming.
In a letter of explanation posted on the site, Smith cited only the media attention as her reason for withdrawing her ad.
While Smith's mother said that the ad may be a hoax, the corrections director at the prison confirmed that Smith paid for the ad from her SC Department of Corrections account, an account provided to prisoners for the small amounts of money they can earn doing jobs behind bars.
A visit to the Web site found a picture of a kneeling, smiling Smith, looking more like a high-school cheerleader than a convicted killer.
A visit to CNN's Web site's U.S. News Year in Review page found a recap of the Smith murder trial. Accompanying the summary was a picture of 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex, the two sons Smith strapped into car seats in the back seat of her Mazda before sentencing them to death by rolling the car into John D. Long Lake in Union County, S.C. They are the faces of two little ones who, too, might have loved rainbows, Mickey Mouse, the beach, mountains and waterfalls, had they not been denied -- by their sensitive, caring and kind-hearted mother -- the chance of ever experiencing them.
Not applicable?
An interesting observation was made during the visit to the pen-pal Web site. General information provided about each prisoner includes the reason for incarceration. There, Smith's profile is marked "N/A" -- a simple gesture that, possibly, would enable Prisoner No. 221487 on the site to convey the message that her heinous crime was not among the topics she cared to discuss while nursing her bout with loneliness.
This isn't the first time Smith has made the news behind bars. Three years ago, two prison guards were disciplined for having sex with her. Yes, life certainly must be lonely for Smith. But, better that than the alternative, had the jury agreed with Smith's ex-husband, David. Had that been the case, she wouldn't have been able to mark the simple "No" where the profile provides an answer to the question, "On death row?"