AOL File Library: 9,300 to 9,399/9300.zip/AOLDLs/Court TV Trial Documents/Susan Smith_ Defense Opening/SMITH2.txt

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        MS. CLARKE: It is sadness that brings us
together. Michael and Alex Smith, the most precious
people in the life of Susan Smith and David Smith
are dead. And they are dead at the hands of their
mother. And for the next several days our single
solitary question is how. Why did this happen.

       You are here to judge Susan Smith's actions,
her responsibility, and her life.

       It's remarkably important at this point for you
to think about what you are going to hear and what
you are not going to hear, because while there is
evidence, there is the lack of evidence.

       And let me lay several things to rest. Susan
Smith is not here to put on evidence to blame anyone
else. She is not here in this case to say to you
I'm a victim. Susan Smith is not here to say to you
in any technical or legal sense that she was insane.
Insanity under the eyes of the law is the ability to
know legal or moral right from legal or moral wrong
and Susan Smith new it was wrong to kill.

       She tried to cope with a failing life and she
snapped. We are not here to talk to you about any
abuse excuse. We are not here to put on the
evidence of excusing responsibility because of bad
circumstances in life or an abused life, because
Susan Smith accepts responsibility for what
happened. But we are here to talk to you a lot
about the life of Susan Smith because you have to
judge her. You have to understand. You have to
learn. You have to know why and how this happened.
And how can you judge her without knowing about her
life?

       So we will be talking a lot about Susan Smith's
life in this case and we will be talking with you
about her mental illness and how it affected her
judgment and her life.

       Please understand the victims in this case are
Michael and Alex Smith. They were beautiful
children. They were precious children. They were
loved by their mother. They were loved by their
father. They were loved by their grandparents and
their extended families. They were loved by all of
us, and they are gone from us. And when we talk to
you throughout this case about the life of Susan
Smith, we do not lose sight of these those two
beautiful little boys. She cannot lose sight of
those two beautiful little boys.

       The solicitor told you in opening that they
will start the case on the night of October the 25th
and the nine days and the recovery of the car. But
I want to tell you this case goes way back well
before the night of October the 25th, 1994. And I
tell you that because it is essential you need to
know about the life of Susan Smith so that you can
judge her responsibility and judge her actions and
judge her life. So we must take you back. We must
talk with you throughout this case about Susan
because she is on trial. You are here to judge her.
But please note we have not lost sight of Michael
and Alex Smith.

       Susan has confessed. You will hear about it.
She has confessed to letting her -- putting down the
hand brake on her car and letting the car without
her roll into John D. Long Lake. It was a failed
suicide and she lied. That night she was on her way
to her mom's. She was terribly upset from a very
stressful day. She packed the children up with
their pajamas to go to her mom's house to bathe the
kids, be around someone, refocus herself, and her
mom couldn't be there for awhile. She left to go
driving to her mom's. And in her own attempt to
deal with her fears and her loneliness and her
stress and her embarrassment about that she drove
around. She diverted, as many would, and drove
through the dark. The children slept in the car and
she found herself at John D. Long Lake. She found
herself there to deal with her fear, to deal with
her turmoil, to deal with her absolute confusion in
life. And she failed in her suicide, and she lied.

       Susan's lie to you. You were here. Her lie to
me. Her lie to everyone. Her lie to everyone in
this community. Her lie to this country is
unforgivable. It was wrong. There is no excuse.
She is ashamed.

       You will see video tapes. You will be marched
through the nine days of videotapes and Susan's
lying, and that will raise some emotions that bring
them back. It will bring back some anger. But as
you sit and listen to the evidence, you will see
that it was a childlike lie. The most horrible
thing in the world this mother, who loved her
children more than anything in the world, could have
done happened. And this very brittle young woman
could not deal with the horror of what she had done.

       When we have talk about Susan's life we are not
doing it to gain your sympathy. We are doing it to
gain your understanding. It goes all the way back.
Susan's -- probably her greatest lesson in life with
love and life was when her father, when she was six
years, old committed suicide. He committed suicide
because her mother didn't love him any more. You
will hear about the turmoil and the distress and the
fear and confusion in the home when Susan was a
child. That is, that's the world that Susan grew up
in as a three and four and five year old. And into
her teens she was already a sort of the walking
wounded, but she learned to put on the sweet and the
happy face when inside there was turmoil. There was
confusion. There was loneliness. There was self
hatred. And there was a longing to die.

       You see, suicide became an option for Susan
when her father committed suicide. She had tried it
twice before October the 25th. Once in the very
childlike way at age thirteen. Once in a more
serious attempt at age eighteen. So suicide was a
option for her.

       Susan's longing since age six for the love of a
father turned into a stepfather who molested her.
And the most harmful part of that is that Susan was
persuaded that she was at fault.

       As the solicitor said, you are going to hear
about the night of October the 25th and the events
that led up to that night. You know what happened
on that boat ramp is going to be fairly simple for
you. But not a single reason got Susan to that boat
ramp that night. It was not a boyfriend. Use your
common sense. It was not a desire to get rid of
obstacles in life. Use your common sense in this
trial as you listen to the evidence.

       The relationship with Tom Findlay will be, I'm
sure, fully explored on the witness stand. The
children were not a reason for that relationship to
not make it. We will ask you through this listening
to the evidence that you use your common sense about
that. Suicide is why we are here. And in Susan's
own suicidal confusion she believed the children
needed to go with her. And the problem is the body
wills to live and Susan jumped out of that car. I
think you will see from the evidence it's a whole
lot easier to roll a car into the lake than to stay
in it yourself.

       Susan's confession to you and the confession
that you will hear "I did not want to live any more.
I felt things could never get any worse. I felt I
couldn't be a good mom any more, but I didn't want
want my children to grow up without a mom. I wanted
to end my life so bad and was in my car ready to go
down that ramp into the water and I did go part way
but I stopped. I dropped to the lowest when I
allowed my children to go down that ramp into the
water without me."

       And she ran from the lake and she was
horrified. And in her own very childlike response
to the most horrifying thing she could ever have
done a lie began to unravel. Once it began, there
was no undoing it. Once the cameras came in, once
the world came in, there was real going to be no
undoing it. Once the car began to roll those
children were lost, and Susan's life was lost.

       The one critical thing that you will learn
about in this case is who those children were. They
were the light of her life. They were the center of
her life. They were the sunshine in her life. They
were her heart. They were everything to Susan
Smith. She snapped. Everyone has a breaking point.
Susan broke where many of us might bend, but I think
through the evidence you will see why.

       All we ask of you is to judge Susan for who she
is and what she did. We ask you to listen through
the case to what kind of a mother Susan was. She
loved those children. She was a nurturing person.
She was a good mom. Because of her life and
problems that she could not deal with, she snapped
and Michael and Alex are gone. We ask you to open
your hearts and open your minds and listen to the
evidence. Listen very carefully and return the
appropriate verdict. Thank you very much.