Agonizing, and Unneeded, Trial : Susan Smith is guilty; but would killing her make us all feel better?

Susan Smith is on trial in South Carolina for the murder of her small sons. But unlike most trials, this one is not about guilt or innocence. The 23-year-old has confessed to drowning her boys in a lake. She’s willing to be punished and, according to her lawyer, would accept a life sentence without the possibility of parole for 30 years. So, why is the prosecutor insisting on the death penalty? Could he be trying to curry favor with the voters instead of trying to serve justice?

Obviously, something is deeply wrong with a parent who kills her children. Jurors will hear about Smith’s father’s suicide when she was 6, a troubled youth during which her stepfather molested her, her unhappy marriage and failed romances. None of this justifies murder, of course, but such mitigating factors are often used in arguments against the death penalty in a capital case.

Smith’s attorney believes she is either guilty of a horrendous act brought about by mental problems or innocent by reason of insanity. Whatever the case may be, putting Smith to death won’t bring her children back.

If she is sentenced under the 30-year proposal, she would be at least in her mid-50s before being eligible for parole. No matter how much time she spends in prison, for many she will forever live as an object of hatred--the mother who turned “baby killer.� In a number of ways, the life of Susan Smith is over. Isn’t that punishment enough?

Ministers in Smith’s hometown of Union have urged the prosecutor to accept a plea bargain and let the healing begin. That healing, it could be said, involves the entire nation. Smith broke the hearts of millions of Americans when she appeared on television, day after day, pleading for the return of her children. Racial healing is also needed. In a region where race still is a matter of daily, often emotional concern, Smith indicted all black men when she blamed the kidnaping on a nonexistent African American carjacker.

In a sense, the trial, which started Monday, is unnecessary. Smith should be sent to prison, her community should be spared the expense of a lengthy proceeding and the nation should be spared the revival of memories of an unspeakable crime.