The ex-husband of Susan Smith, who drowned their two sons in 1994 and is currently serving a life sentence, is speaking out about what he would say to the convicted killer if they came face to face.
In an exclusive interview with Court TV on Friday, Sept. 13, David Smith shares what he would say to Susan, who will be eligible for parole in November, three decades after the killings in South Carolina. (An exclusive clip of the interview is shown below.)
“I would just tell her that you have no idea of how much damage you have done to so many people,” David tells Court TV anchor Julie Grant. “I would tell her that in my capabilities I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure you stay behind bars.”
On Oct. 25, 1994, Smith, then 23, told police that she had been carjacked by a Black man who had taken off with her two young sons still in her car. For nine days, she made tearful pleas on national television for their safe return. But it was all a lie.
As her story began to unravel, Smith admitted that there was no carjacker, and that she had let her car roll into a lake with Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months, still strapped into their car seats. Authorities said she committed the murders because she was secretly dating a man who didn’t want children.
David has previously spoken out about the killings, telling PEOPLE in 2010 that he has never fully recovered from the pain. “There’s always this nagging and gnawing heartache,” David said. “It’s there every day, even if I’m not always conscious of it.”
Susan was convicted of two counts of murder and is serving a life sentence in Leath Correctional Institution in Greenwood, S.C.
According to the South Carolina Department of Corrections, Susan will be eligible for parole on Nov. 4, 2024.
During her time behind bars, Susan received disciplinary infractions for self-mutilation, drug use and possession of narcotics or marijuana, and as a result, she lost multiple privileges, according to records previously obtained.
In 2015, Susan defended herself in a letter to The State, a South Carolina newspaper.
“Mr. Cahill, I am not the monster society thinks I am,” she wrote to reporter Harrison Cahill. “I am far from it.”
