SPARTANBURG, S.C. (7/24/95) -- South Carolina legal experts say the speedy pace of the Susan Smith double murder trial is normal in a state where death penalty cases rarely last more than two weeks.

A Union County jury found Smith guilty of two counts of murder Saturday, after five days of testimony. When court reconvenes at 9:30 this morning, the jury will begin the process of deciding whether Smith should get the death penalty or life in prison.

Though the Smith trial has been the subject of national attention, South Carolina lawyers say they never expected the Union case to become a courtroom marathon like O.J. Simpson murder trial in California.

"We follow strict rules of evidence; we don't waste time in the courtroom, and we have an excellent judge in Judge (William) Howard who knows his stuff and knows how to move things along," said Jim Anders of Columbia, a former 5th Circuit solicitor.

"I think the people in California need to come to South Carolina to see how a murder case should be tried," Anders said. "They allow people to go off on tangents, to talk about things that are totally irrelevant. They get into arguments in front of the jury that our judges would lock you up for."

Retired state Supreme Court Chief Justice Bruce Littlejohn of Spartanburg credits the fast pace of the Smith trial to Howard's tight rein over procedure and his decision to bar cameras and microphones from the courtroom.

"Television in the courtroom makes ham actors out of lawyers, witnesses, jurors, spectators and sometimes even the judge himself," Littlejohn said. "The case in California has been prolonged because Simpson has virtually unlimited funds and Judge (Lance) Ito has lost control of the courtroom."

South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon said he has seen the problems with the California legal system firsthand. Condon, who was solicitor in Charleston in the mid-1980s, went to Los Angeles to watch the trial of Mitchell Sims, who became infamous for murders of pizza deliverers in California and South Carolina.

Condon said it took five months to convict Sims and sentence him to death in Los Angeles. But when he was extradited to South Carolina to stand trial for murder, Sims was sentenced to death within seven days.

"The system out there, in my view, is out of control, and I don't think they work very hard, as a matter of fact," he said. "They stop court at 5 p.m. every day, they take long lunch breaks, a mid-morning break, and they never work on weekends."

In South Carolina, testimony normally goes well into the evening, and court is often held seven days a week in murder cases. The Smith trial has kept a Monday-through-Saturday pace since it began July 10.

Seventh Circuit Solicitor Holman Gossett agreed with Condon's assessment of California's system. Gossett, who has tried 11 death penalty cases in Spartanburg and Cherokee counties, said none of them took more than 12 days to complete.

"I think if we tried O.J. here, it would have been long over," Gossett said.

William McAninch, a law professor at the University of South Carolina, said no one should be surprised that the state rested its case against Susan Smith after only three days of testimony. Smith confessed to killing her two sons, 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex, by letting them roll into John D. Long Lake while strapped into her Mazda Protege.

"Guilt is not very complicated to prove," McAninch said. "You've got overwhelming evidence of guilt. You've got a detailed confession, and you've got bodies. There wasn't a whole lot for the prosecution to do."

But the sentencing phase of the trial, which begins today, could take longer, he said.

Solicitor Tommy Pope will try to show the jury that Smith's crime was so calculated and horrible that she deserves the death penalty, McAninch said. Defense lawyer Spartanburg defense lawyer Richard Vieth said even the penalty phase could be completed within a week. Vieth represented David Rocheville, who was sentenced to death in 1991 for his part in the murder of two people in connection with a robbery at Westgate Cinemas.

Vieth said he was able to put 28 witnesses on the stand in two days during the penalty phase of Rocheville's trial. The entire trial lasted only five days, he said.

"Bruck will want to portray (Smith) as a good worker, have neighbors say she was a good mother and loved her children, and get them on and off the stand," he said.

The medical testimony about Smith's mental state could take longer, Vieth said. But Bruck told reporters Saturday that he didn't plan to reintroduce evidence from his psychiatric experts, who testified last week.

The jury already has heard testimony from a psychiatrist, social worker and friends about Smith's history of depression, her desire to commit suicide at an early age and at least two suicide attempts.

But Bruck said Saturday that her story isn't complete, and neither he nor prosecutor Tommy Pope would speculate about the length of the trial's sentencing phase.

"I think brevity is irrelevant to David (Bruck)," Vieth said. "I think he has got to develop the case the way he thinks it needs to be developed."

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