Susan Smith, 53, is serving a life sentence for killing her children - three-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex - by letting her car roll down a boat ramp and into a South Carolina lake with them inside. Now, she is asking a seven-member parole board via video to release her from prison. She is eligible for a parole hearing every two years now that she has spent 30 years behind bars. A decision to grant parole requires two-thirds of board members to vote to release her. In October 1994, Smith claimed she was carjacked late at night and that a black man drove away with her sons inside. For nine days, Smith made tearful pleas for Michael and Alex to be returned safely - even though they had been in John D Lake the whole time. The traffic light where Smith said she had stopped when her car was taken would only be red if another car was waiting to cross but Smith said no other cars were around. Other parts of her story also did not make sense. Smith ultimately confessed to the murders and admitted she watched them drown. Prosecutors said she murdered the boys because the man she was having an affair with - the wealthy son of the owner of the business she worked at - broke off the relationship because she had two young children. Smith avoided the death penalty after claiming she was suffering a mental breakdown and that she was the victim of sexual assault by her stepfather. Smith's ex-husband and father of the children, David Smith, as well as the prosecutor at her murder trial, will urge that she remains behind bars.