"What we are going to present is that man loved his children with all his heart," Giese said.
Giese promised to put faces on 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex Smith. "We will bring them for a brief fleeting moment back to life," he said.
But Bruck, in his statements, reminded the jury that there are victims on both sides of the courtroom.
"Grief is not a monopoly on the prosecution side," Bruck said.
The lawyers didn't begin their opening arguments until after 2 p.m. because the judge had to consider a number of issues before bringing the jury into the courtroom.
Judge William Howard refused to allow the prosecution's most gruesome evidence -- photos of the boys bloated and decomposed after having been submerged in John D. Long Lake for nine days.
Bruck objected to the graphic images.
"These pictures are, quite simply, unbearable to look at because of who they are of," Bruck said.
Howard, who agreed that pictures showing decayed, discolored bodies were prejudicial, did allow photos that depicted how the children's safety seats were fastened in the car when it rolled down the boat ramp.
Howard also talked to lawyers in chambers for nearly two hours after he learned that a juror came in contact with David Smith's maternal grandmother in the laundry room of their hotel Monday morning.
The judge interviewed several witnesses, including Mr. Smith's grandmother, Sara Singleton, and his mother, Barbara Benson.
Transcripts of the hearing were not immediately available. However, Howard ruled the contact was innocent and would not jeopardize the rest of the proceeding.
He denied Bruck's motion for mistrial.
The prosecution put three witnesses on the stand Monday. And Bruck struck at their case by asking Margaret Gregory, the Smith family spokeswoman during the search, about the impact of a death sentence.
"I think that it would take what has been a horrible tragedy and make it that much worse," Gregory said under cross examination.
Gregory, a cousin to Smith by marriage, took a leave of absence from her job as public information director for the Richland County Sheriff's Office to help handle the deluge of media that descended on Union during the search.
Solicitor Tommy Pope called Gregory to testify about the number of times Smith appeared on television and perpetuated her lie that a black man took her car and kidnapped her children at gunpoint.
However, under cross examination, Gregory said Smith seemed reluctant, rather than excited by the attention she was getting.
"I think at some point she did want to tell (the truth), but she didn't know what to do," Gregory said.
Bruck then asked her to give her opinion about what a death sentence would do to Smith's family.
"Given what everyone has been through, I don't know that things can get any worse. I just don't think taking Susan's life would be any help."
While Gregory was on the stand, Pope played four videos for the jury. After court, Pope said the videos show Smith had ample opportunity to tell everyone her children were at the bottom of John D. Long Lake.
Also in court Monday were:
-- Margaret Frierson, executive director of the South Carolina Adam Walsh Center. Frierson, who was called to Union by Smith's family to help search for the boys, testified that Smith seemed unusually calm for the circumstances. She also testified about the magnitude of the search. Frierson said the Adam Walsh Center sent faxes to 34,000 police agencies, produced public service announcements and distributed fliers through trucking companies.
-- Eddie Harris, an agent for the State Law Enforcement Division and former assistant chief of police in Union. Harris, who was in charge of transporting Smith during her interrogations, testified that he, too, was surprised by Smith's calmness and disinterest in finding her children. He said Smith asked him how she looked on television and told him she wanted to go to the beach when the search was over.
"She asked me if I knew how to shag," Harris said. "I thought it was strange, inappropriate behavior."
-- Dr. Bill James of Spartanburg, Smith's gynecologist, was called by the prosecution to say Smith wasn't depressed when he saw her in October. Judge Howard did not allow his testimony because prosecutors failed to properly notify the defense that James would be a witness in the penalty phase of the trial.
The prosecution is expected to finish its case late today or Wednesday.
Bruck has not said who will testify for Smith. But he plans to recall Dr. Arlene Andrews, a Columbia social worker who is expected to testify in more detail about a history of depression and suicide in Smith's family.
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