CHILD MURDER: THE POLLY KLAAS AND SUSAN SMITH CASES

This research paper compares and contrasts two of the most celebrated American child murder cases of the 1990s --the kidnapping and brutal slaying of 12 year old Polly Klaas in Petaluma, California by Richard Davis in October 1993 and the deliberate drowning by Susan Smith of her two sons, three year old Michael and 14 months-old Alexander, on the outskirts of Union, South Carolina on October 25, 1994.

Because of the helplessness of the victims of child murders, the grisly details of their slaying and the suffering and trauma involved, public attention in the United States has often been riveted on, and shocked by, child murders. Berg (1998) said the kidnapping and murder of the infant son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne in 1932 "affected every parent and child in America" (p. 249). The 1935 trial of Bruno Hauptman for the crime was a media circus. Berg said that because Hauptman's confession probably resulted from an illegal police beating and the evidence of his guilt was marginal, "debate about the case has never stopped" (p. 334). Criminal responsibility for the recent slaying of six year old Jon Benet Ramsey in Colorado in her parents' home has not yet been established but has attracted enormous and sometimes sensational media coverage.

Richard Davis confessed on April 30, 1994 that he kidnapped Polly Klaas from her home and strangled her to death with a rope.

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s [it] cannot be explained by the mistake of any one person" (p. 6). The publicity surrounding the Klaas case helped produce in 1994 the passage of the 'three strikes and you're out' ballot initiative in California which mandates the imprisonment without possibility of parole of violent, repeat felony offenders and some repeat sex offenders. Susan Smith's Infanticides Nature, circumstances and motivation for the murders. Susan Smith at first told police that her sons had been kidnapped by an African American who carjacked her vehicle. This attempt to inflame racial bias produced fruitless wild goose chases, which included the questioning of the African American husband of the mother of Smith's former husband David Smith (Zibart, 1996, August, p. 176). Under police questioning, Susan confessed to the murder of her sons on November 3, 1994. The testimony at trial revealed that on the night of the murders she fed her sons pizza, strapped them into the car seats of her Mazda Protege, released the emergency brake and caused the vehicle to roll into John D. Long Lake. The testimony indicated that six minutes elapsed before the car sank during which time her sons were presumably screaming for their mother to come to their aid. The

Category: Psychology - C