Smith was a 22-year-old mom when she became a household name for killing her sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander. In 1994, she let her car roll into John D. Long Lake in Union County, South Carolina, with her boys still strapped into their car seats.

Convicted murderer Susan Smith began her statement to the parole board crying, stating she loved her sons. Decades ago, her tears moved a community. Smith’s ex-husband, David, begged the parole board to keep her behind bars for killing his sons.

A parole board in South Carolina has ruled unanimously that Susan Smith should remain in prison 30 years after she was convicted of rolling her car into a lake and drowning her two young sons