Another Susan Smith Case? Not Likely!
08/17/2010
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In 1994, white mother Susan Smith killed her two children, by strapping them in their car seats and sliding the car into a South Carolina lake. She blamed an (imaginary) black man for the crime, saying she'd been carjacked.

Detectives figured out that she'd been lying, (she's doing life in prison right now) and it was a huge racial story because of the "To Kill A Mockingbird" type of false accusation. (See The Brute Caricature at Ferris University's Jim Crow page, and Blaming A Black Man, Letters, Time Magazine, Monday, Dec. 05, 1994.)

Another case, also in South Carolina, involves African-American mother Shaquan Duley, accused similarly of killing two of her children,  Two-year-old Devean C. Duley and 18-month-old Ja'van T. Duley, whom divers pulled from the river yesterday.

Police claim to have a confession:

A South Carolina mother was charged with murder Tuesday after she admitted smothering her two toddlers and faking a car accident to cover up her crime, police said.

Shaquan Duley, 29, blamed the killing on financial woes, telling authorities she could no longer take care of her kids.

"She was a mother that was unemployed," said Orangeburg County Sheriff Larry Williams.

Duley initially told police her car careened into a river, trapping Devean, 2, and Ja'van, 18 months, in their child seats. The mom, who also has a 5-year-old child, first claimed she ran into the North Edisto River near a rural boat landing.

The mom couldn't reach the children in the submerged car, she claimed. But her dry clothes and relative calm raised suspicions.

The woman didn't have a cell phone and flagged down a passerby who called the South Carolina Highway Patrol.

Duley, who will be arraigned Wednesday, later told investigators she was overwhelmed by the responsibilities of raising the kids. She showed no remorse, authorities said.

"She was fed up with her mother telling her that she couldn't take care of the children or wasn't taking care of the children," Williams said. "She just wanted to be free."[Mom Shaquan Duley charged with smothering her two tots; staging car crash as cover-up, By Oren Yaniv, New York Daily News, August 17, 2010]

However, I predict Ms. Duley's case won't get the cover of Time Magazine. You see, in the absence of a falsely accused (imaginary) black carjacker, there's no racial aspect to this story at all.

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