Mother Ruled Competent to Stand Trial in Boys’ Deaths

Susan Smith was ruled competent to stand trial Tuesday for drowning her two young sons, despite warnings from a psychiatrist that she is suicidal and might try to sabotage her own defense.

Jury selection, which began Monday and could take up to two weeks, proceeded slowly, with one woman and one man surviving individual questioning of the first 13 panelists.

The second day of the trial began with Circuit Judge William Howard asking Smith a series of questions.

Did she understand the charges against her? “Murder,” she said quietly but clearly.

And the possible punishment? “The death penalty,” she replied.

“Is there any time that you have not been able to understand your attorneys and they to understand you as a result of your mental condition?” Howard asked. “No, your honor,” she answered.

Defense lawyers David Bruck and Judy Clarke said Smith had cooperated with them. But they told the judge that they share the concerns of the state’s chief psychiatrist, Donald Morgan, who testified Monday that Smith is sane but suicidal and capable of sabotaging her defense.

The judge said the antidepressant Smith takes seems to be helping her.

Smith, 23, faces two murder charges in the Oct. 25 deaths of Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months.

She had claimed that a black carjacker took them but later confessed to letting her car roll into a lake with the boys inside. Prosecutors plan to argue that she killed her sons when they got in the way of a love affair.

The first person selected for the 12-member jury is a divorced woman in her 40s who said she has two sons and two daughters, ages 8 to 15. She said one of her daughters at age 12 was sexually assaulted.

The second panelist chosen was a black man, who said he had refused to talk with friends about Smith’s case because he didn’t think it was fair that they already had convicted her before trial.