RICHMOND — A General Assembly resolution that supports Gov. Bob McDonnell’s request that convicted murderer Jens Soering be kept in a Virginia prison was approved in a House of Delegates committee Thursday.
The House Rules Committee approved the resolution, sponsored by Sen. Steve Newman, R-Lynchburg, on a 15-0 vote without discussion. The Senate approved the resolution three weeks ago.
McDonnell has asked the U.S. Department of Justice to deny a request from former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine that Soering be transferred into federal custody and then to his native Germany, where he could be paroled in two years.
Kaine’s request, which he sent to the U.S. attorney general during his final week in office in January, took people in the Lynchburg and Bedford areas by surprise.
Soering was sentenced to two life terms for the 1985 murders of Derek and Nancy Haysom in their Bedford County home. Elizabeth Haysom, Soering’s girlfriend at the time and the daughter of the Haysoms, is serving a 90-year sentence as an accomplice.
Several legislators already have signed letters opposing the transfer, and Haysom family members and Bedford County law enforcement people also have sent letters urging federal officials to deny the transfer.
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