US woman sentenced to life in prison for killing her 2 kids
Print Edition
MIKE Simpson cried as his wife was sentenced to life in prison for killing their children in their South Carolina home. He has one of the bullets fired still in his skull, but he has lost almost all his memories of his 7-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son.
A jury found Suzanna Simpson, 38, guilty of two counts of murder on Thursday along with attempted murder for trying to kill her husband. Circuit Judge Brian Gibbons immediately handed down the harshest sentence he could, saying Simpson deserved it.
All the while, Mike Simpson, in a wheelchair and with almost no short-term memory, dabbed away tears. His mother told the judge he was an amazing fighter, surviving not just more than one gunshot to his head, but the unimaginable grief of losing his kids and becoming dependent on others.
“His whole family has been taken away from him,” Allison Simpson said.
The case is another example of guns and mental illness intersecting in a country that struggles with both.
One month before the killings in this county of 120,000 people, the same prosecutors, defense lawyers and even psychologist were in the same courtroom. Susan Hendricks, a woman with multiple personalities, pleaded guilty but mentally ill and received a life sentence for killing her two adult sons, her ex-husband and her stepmother.
A year before the latest killings, Suzanna Simpson spent six days in the hospital for severe mental illness and her doctors urged her husband to get all of the guns out of their house for safety.
But about a year later, Simpson woke up at 4am, put on a headband with a small light, worked the combination on the gun safe and ambushed her husband, and their daughter and son as they slept. She said she tried to kill herself but loaded the wrong ammunition in the gun.
Simpson told a psychiatrist she thought the whole family would be reincarnated in a better world.
Simpson had little reaction after being sent away for life, mouthing “bye” to her family as she walked out of court.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
