Smith’s Stepfather Says He Shares Guilt In Boys’ Drowning He Admits Molesting Smith As Teen, Affair With Her As Adult

Susan Smith’s stepfather, who admitted that he had molested her when she was a teenager and had consensual sex with her as an adult, told her and his town that he shared her guilt in the drowning deaths of her young sons.

Smith’s defense, which rested its case Thursday in the penalty phase of her murder trial, did what many people in this small town have wondered about for months: it called to the stand her stepfather, Beverly Russell, to accept part of the blame for the deaths of the two little boys last Oct. 25.

Russell, a former member of the executive committee of the South Carolina Republican Party and a member of the Christian Coalition, read aloud from a letter he had written to Smith in jail in which he said that his “heart breaks for what I have done to you.”

“You don’t have all the guilt in this tragedy,” he wrote to her, on Father’s Day.

Closing arguments in the sentencing phase of the trial were expected to begin Friday morning, and the jury was expected to get the case by the afternoon.

The same jury took just 2-1/2 hours to convict the 23-year-old Smith of murder in the drowning of Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months. They must now deliberate whether Smith should be executed for that offense or be sentenced to life in prison, where she would be eligible for parole after 30 years.

Russell was one of several relatives who testified for Smith on Thursday. Smith refused to testify when Judge William Howard of Circuit Court told her she had the right. But the jury could still hear from her Friday if she chooses to make an unsworn statement to it after the lawyers have finished closing arguments. No crossexamination is permitted.

The state’s psychiatrist said before the trial even began that Smith wanted to die and would sabotage her own defense if she was allowed to speak to the jury.

Smith’s lawyer, David Bruck, who has argued that she just snapped under the pressure of a crumbling personal life and a long history of depression, was paid in part by Russell, who mortgaged his home to raise the money.

Russell, a tall, bulky man with silver hair, cried on the stand as he read from his letter, “Had I known what the result of my sin would be, I would have mustered the strength to behave according to my responsibility.”

Russell fondled his daughter when she was 15 and kissed her in a passionate, grown-up way. He continued to do so even after he had had counseling, he testified Thursday. Then, after her marriage to David Smith, the boys’ father, he had sex with her again.

Bruck and Judy Clarke, another of Smith’s lawyers, have called witness after witness who testified that sexual molestation at the hands of a parent could lead to a lifetime of emotional damage.

“All you needed from me was the right kind of love,” said Russell, a financial counselor. He said he misinterpreted his daughter’s need for affection with sex.

The prosecutor, Tommy Pope, has argued that Smith killed her children to reclaim a wealthy lover who said he did not want a relationship that involved children. Pope said everyone and everything but Smith has been blamed for the two murders.