STATE RESTS IN SUSAN SMITH CASE

In a bitter coda to its videotaped, six-minute reenactment ofSusan Smith's car sinking with her two young boys inside, the prosecution rested its case in the sentencing phase today by showing stone-faced jurors photographs ofthe drowned children. Since the trial began, TIME's Lisa Towle notes, Judge William Howard has disallowed all photos of the boys, and today he prevented the prosecution from displaying full-body or face-on shots. But Towle says those permitted today were damaging enough, showing the toddlers' bodies strapped securely to the seats -- "their legs and feet and the teddy bears in the back of the car." Defense attorneys, who fought to ban the photos, also attempted to control the damage done by the videotape shown Tuesday, which employed a back-seat camera to mimic what the children saw as they died. Says Towle: "There wasn't anything they could do to counter that image."