Jurors Cite Smith’s Troubled Past in Decision to Spare Life

Three jurors in Susan Smith’s murder case said Friday they reached a quick decision to spare her life because of her troubled past.

Only one member of the jury initially voted for the death penalty, but on a second vote he was persuaded to go along with the other 11 who opted for life in prison.

“We all felt Susan was a really disturbed person,” Deborah Benvenuti, a clerk at a dry cleaning store, said in an interview at her home. “We all felt like giving Susan the death penalty wouldn’t serve justice.”

During the 2 1/2 hours of deliberation, one male juror said he thought Smith deserved execution because she did not try to save her two boys while the car was sinking into the lake, Benvenuti said. “What really got him was the re-enactment of the car. He felt Susan, if she really wanted to, she could have went out there in the water to save her children.”

Benvenuti and Leroy Belue, a butcher at a grocery store, both said jurors were opposed to the death penalty because of Smith’s harsh life. “Most of the reasons were all the same, because they felt like Susan had a lot of hard times through her life. She never received the help she should have received,” Belue said. “There are a lot more people in this case who should have been punished who weren’t.”

Benvenuti said Smith’s stepfather, Beverly Russell, who has acknowledged sexually abusing her when she was a teen-ager, shared responsibility for Smith’s fate. “I think a lot of her problems had to do with Beverly Russell,” she said.

Juror John Dunn, who cleans cars at a local dealership, said jurors looked at photographs of Smith, her family and the crime scene, and watched videotapes of her statements to the media, as well as the re-enactment of the car going into the lake.

Dunn said he was convinced that Smith had psychological problems and needed professional help.

But he added: “I would just want to know deep down in her soul and heart why did she do it. I don’t know if she ever realized she was sick or not.”