The news out of the governor’s office broke late Wednesday afternoon: Convicted killer Jens Soering won’t be going home to Germany anytime soon.
Soering, a German national and son of a top diplomat, is serving two life sentences in a maximum security state prison for the 1985 killings of Bedford County residents, Derek and Nancy Haysom. The brutal slayings, carried out at the behest and with the planning of the Haysoms’ daughter, Elizabeth, gripped Central Virginia a quarter of a century ago and still live on in local crime lore. It was a case that took police years to conclude, eventually winding up with the couple’s arrest in London.
In the waning days of his administration, former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced he had asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the U.S. Department of Justice to facilitate Soering’s transfer to Germany to serve out the remainder of his sentence. Once in German custody, he would have been eligible for parole in a mere two years.
Relatives of the Haysoms, law enforcement officials and Central Virginia politicians expressed outrage at the transfer request, demanding Kaine explain his actions. The only explanations forthcoming from the soon-to-be former governor were paper-thin and often contradictory.
A mere three days after taking office in January, Gov. Bob McDonnell officially wrote the attorney general to revoke the commonwealth’s transfer request. Both houses of the General Assembly voted unanimously to oppose Soering’s transfer.
And there the matter sat.
Days dragged into weeks. Weeks dragged into months. And still no word from Washington.
Finally, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Sixth District, had the chance to quiz the attorney general publicly about the status of the transfer request. Attorney General Holder, testifying before the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, told Goodlatte he was merely waiting on formal notification of the commonwealth’s official position before he would make any decision.
Which shocked Gov. McDonnell and leaders of the General Assembly, all of whom thought the commonwealth’s position had been made abundantly clear to any and all in Washington.
Within days on May 17, the governor sent yet another letter to Holder, informing the attorney general of his revocation of Kaine’s transfer request and of the actions of the General Assembly. And finally, on July 6, Holder responded to McDonnell’s letter, saying, “You should be assured that it is the position of the United States Department of Justice that Jens Soering will not be considered for tranfer to Germany unless and until the Commonwealthh of Virginia provides clear and unambituous consent to such a transfer.”
Good.
He committed the crime of murder in Virginia, was convicted by a Virginia jury and will spend the rest of his life in a Virginia prison.
Now, we wish former Gov. Kaine would just tell us what in the heck was going through his mind when he started this completely unnecessary brouhaha.
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