By MOLLY McDONOUGH
Staff Writer

UNION, S.C. (7/29/95) -- Susan Smith's family broke into smiles and bittersweet tears of relief Friday when a jury spared her from execution.

The verdict, read at 4:30 p.m. as a sudden burst of rain poured over the Union County Courthouse, was a painful victory for her family, whose focus for the past eight months has been keeping her alive.

Now they can mourn the loss of Michael and Alex, whom Smith was convicted of killing last fall.

"No one could grieve for Michael and Alex because they were so focused on protecting Susan," defense lawyer David Smith, the boys' father, sat still and showed no reaction to the sentence.

"Me and my family are disappointed the death penalty wasn't the verdict, "he said after court on the courthouse steps.

Asked if he will ever be able to forgive and forget, Smith said, "I'll never forget what Susan has done. I'll never forget Michael and Alex. But forgive, that's something I'll have to deal with farther on down the road."

Smith, who stood by his wife for nine days while she led the nation in search of her children and a phantom carjacker, said he plans to leave Union.

"I have to leave," he said. "If I live in Union, I look at Foster Park... there are a lot of things I'd rather not look at for the rest of my life."

After court, Solicitor Tommy Pope said he respected the jury's decision even though he thought Ms. Smith should have been sentenced to death.

"It's been a long road and with all we have been through, I'd still have to say it was worth it," Pope said. "It was something that had to be done."

Bruck, who had offered a plea months ago that would have given Ms. Smith the same sentence she got Friday, took a jab at Pope's seeking the death penalty.

"Obviously I did not agree with Tommy Pope about his decision to seek the death penalty in this case and put the community and family through the trial, "Bruck said.

However, he qualified the statement and said he knows Pope was motivated by "a genuine feeling of horror and regret about this horrible crime."

Bruck said Ms. Smith is relieved because her family didn't want her to die.

"There is no good outcome in this case," he said. "This case was an awful human tragedy. It still is and it always will be."

Bruck argued during the trial that the boys died during a botched suicide attempt by a woman whose troubled life caused her to succumb to major depression. Defense witnesses testified about Ms. Smith's father's suicide when she was 6, her stepfather's molestation and her two suicide attempts.

In his closing arguments Friday, Bruck said Smith's choice to go to John D. Long Lake will haunt her for the rest of her life.

"This young woman is in a lake of fire," Bruck said. "That's her punishment."

Bruck, holding the courtroom Bible up to the jury, made a New Testament plea for Smith's life.

He read a passage from the Gospel of John about a woman who was about to be stoned for committing adultery, reading "He who is without sin cast the first stone."

In his closing arguments, Pope took one last chance to depict Smith as a selfish, manipulative woman who killed her children so she could be with ex-boyfriend Tom Findlay, the son of a wealthy textile executive.

"The love for herself was greater than the love for those boys," he said, as he paced in front of the jury box.

Pope, who held up photos of the retrieved car and baby seats, left the jury with the horrific images of how the boys must have died.

"If they were asleep, they weren't asleep when the car hit the lake," he said. "They knew it was dark. They knew they were scared. They knew they were alone."

The boys, Pope said, probably never knew what was happening "until the water in the darkness covered their faces."

When asked after the verdict if he had explained why Ms. Smith committed the crime, Bruck responded, "We have shed all the light at the trial. We have shown you everything that can be found out."

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