Last month, a jury of her neighbors spared Susan Smith the death penalty and sentenced her instead to life in prison for drowning her two young sons.

Meaning Susan Smith, the woman who drowned her sons?

David Smith, Mrs. Smith's estranged husband, has said over and over that he wants her to die for drowning their two young sons in a lake on Oct. 25.

Prosecutors argued that he had drowned his sons to punish his girlfriend, the boys' mother.

Together, Mr. Bruck and Ms. Clarke represented Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman who was charged with drowning her two sons in 1994.

A county judge accepted an insanity plea yesterday from a woman who fatally stabbed her husband, drowned her two young sons in a Jacuzzi and then tried to kill herself.

Up to the point when Susan Smith drowned her two sons, Michael and Alex, she was, by all accounts, a perfect mother.

Mrs. Smith, 23, is charged with drowning her sons, Michael, 3, and Alex, 14 months.

However, 9 days later, Susan Smith confessed that she herself had drowned her two sons.

Some though, like Susan Smith, a white middle-class woman who was convicted last year of drowning her two young sons in Union, S.C., defy the stereotypes.