Susan Smith has been behind bars for nearly 30 years after she rolled her car into a South Carolina lake, drowning her two young sons strapped into their car seats.

She made international headlines in October 1994 when she said she was carjacked late at night near the town of Union and a black man left with her sons inside.

The claims by Smith, who is white, fit into a centuries-old racist trope that black men pose a danger to white women and stoked concerns about crime that were prevalent in America in the 1990s and remain so today.

For nine days, Smith made tearful pleas demanding that Michael and Alex be brought back safely.

All the while, the boys were in Smith’s car at the bottom of nearby John D. Long Lake.

Andrea Cavallier reports:

Susan Smith, 53, will appear before a seven-member parole board via video feed from prison on Wednesday to argue for her freedom.

Then she will log off and her ex-husband and father of the children, as well as the prosecutor at her murder trial, will argue that she remains incarcerated.

A decision to grant parole requires a two-thirds vote of the board members present at the hearing, according to the state Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services.

In South Carolina, parole is only granted about eight percent of the time and is less likely during an inmate’s first appearance before the board, in high-profile cases, or when prosecutors and victims’ families oppose each other.

Follow live updates as Susan Smith pleads for her freedom.

The South Carolina woman was convicted of killing her two children in 1994 by driving her car into a lake while the boys were still strapped into their car seats.

A jury found Smith guilty of murder but decided not to sentence her to death. Under state law at the time, she was eligible for a parole hearing every two years now that she has spent 30 years behind bars.

His parole hearing is expected shortly.