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SPARTANBURG (AP) -- The South Carolina mother convicted in 1995 of killing her two sons by rolling her car into a lake is asking for a new trial.

Multiple media outlets report Susan Smith has filed a handwritten petition in Union County for post-conviction relief.

Solicitor Kevin Brackett said Saturday that Smith is claiming her attorney failed to adequately represent her and that the trial was unfair.

The appeal comes a month after her petition in federal court was dismissed.

Smith is serving a life sentence.

She captured the national spotlight in 1994 when she told investigators her two young sons had been taken in a carjacking, and she tearfully pleaded on TV for their return. She later confessed to strapping them into their car seats and letting the car roll into a lake.

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