Newman, Cuccinelli seek to halt Soering prison transfer

RICHMOND — Avenues may exist for reversing former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s proposal to transfer convicted murderer Jens Soering to a German prison, state Sen. Steve Newman said Monday.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said the Soering transfer was the topic of his first meeting with staff members on his first day in office Monday.

Kaine sent a request to the U.S. Department of Justice last week asking it to transfer Soering to the custody of German authorities under an international treaty that also allows the United States to bring home citizens who are being held in other countries. The request became public on Friday, Kaine’s last day in office.

Newman and Cuccinelli said they hoped to get some more definite answers today on two key questions about whether Kaine’s request can be nullified.

Newman also said Monday he still wasn’t sure why Kaine asked for the transfer.

If approved, the request would mean that Soering, who was convicted of the brutal 1985 stabbing deaths of Derek and Nancy Haysom at their Boonsboro home, could go free after serving 22 years of a double life sentence. Soering — who has been eligible for parole since 2002, but has been turned down — is serving the sentences at Buckingham Correctional Center.

Elizabeth Haysom, the couple’s daughter and Soering’s girlfriend at the time, was sentenced to 90 years for the deaths. She is serving her time at a prison in Goochland and also has been turned down for parole.

Newman said Cuccinelli’s office learned two aspects of Kaine’s proposal could mean that it’s open to reversal. But because Monday was a federal holiday, state officials said they were hoping to get more definite answers today.

On one point, Kaine did not use his constitutional powers to pardon or commute Soering’s sentence. If he had used those powers, “the game would be over, because the Constitution gives the executive branch the clear ability” to grant clemency, Newman said.

Instead, Kaine used his position as Virginia’s chief executive to apply to the Justice Department for a transfer.

That leaves open the question of whether newly inaugurated Gov. Bob McDonnell can withdraw the request made last week while Kaine was still governor, Newman said.

“We don’t know the answer to that. We think we may know (Tuesday),” Newman said.

Newman said he hoped to meet with McDonnell’s top advisers today to plan the next steps, and that he also was asking legislative leaders to let the Justice Department know they oppose the transfer.

Newman also said unnamed Justice Department officials indicated the office “was a bit interested in the fact that Kaine’s application and request came with conditions, and the attorney general’s office believes an application with conditions could be problematic.”

Cuccinelli’s staffers didn’t learn what conditions Kaine requested, but Newman said it’s believed that the conditions involved a stipulation that Germany not parole Soering for two years. Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey said last week that he had requested the two-year delay.

“Under the treaty and the process for these releases, the requests are supposed to be blanket and without any negotiations embedded,” Newman said.

“I’ve been trying to understand the purpose behind this,” Newman said. “I was looking for whether there was any reason that related to Soering’s conviction, and clearly there is not,” Newman said.

Also, the request does not appear to be tied to any international event that affects American lives or other activity, Newman said. “I’ve been told there is not. I was told by Governor Kaine’s very honest staff” that Kaine made the request because he supports the international treaty and “he thought giving Jens Soering up would give us basically chips in the international community for future desires of the United States to bring back prisoners.

“I find that most unacceptable,” Newman said, because such a position does not take into account the impact the Haysom murders had on Bedford County and the Lynchburg area, or on the Haysom family and law enforcement.

“It really shook a community, and the jury and the citizens walked away at the end of the trial believing they had seen justice,” Newman said. “And now out of left field comes a decision at the 11th hour without consulting the family, without consulting the community or law enforcement, that would allow Mr. Soering to go to Germany and potentially be released within two years.”