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For a convicted double murderer long on famous supporters, basic detective work could be key
Jens Soering is a frequent flyer here in the Virginia Group. I don't mean that he's a member, but that he's often the subject of threads.
Virginia Politics
For a convicted double murderer long on famous supporters, basic detective work could be key
By Laura Vozzella, Local reporter covering Virginia politics
April 21 at 6:50 PM
CHARLOTTESVILLE — The phone rings in novelist John Grisham’s office, and the best-selling novelist is eager to take the call — from a prisoner, convicted decades ago of a brutal double murder.
Jens Soering, a German diplomat’s son and former University of Virginia honors student who claims he was wrongly convicted of killing his girlfriend’s parents in 1985, has never lacked for high-profile supporters.
For years, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, actor Martin Sheen and Richmond’s Catholic bishop pushed fruitlessly for his release. Grisham is a relative newcomer to the club. So is Jason Flom, a Manhattan music industry executive and founding board member of the Innocence Project, who joined the author in his Charlottesville office for the call, which they recorded for a podcast on wrongful convictions.
Given that star power and political sway have so far failed to free Soering, his best hope may lie with a third man on hand for the podcast — a local sheriff offering old-fashioned detective work. ... Albemarle County Sheriff J.E. “Chip” Harding and a former deputy have teamed up to try to reinvestigate the case, following leads that they say officials in rural Bedford County never pursued — or dropped once Soering made what he says was a false confession to cover for his girlfriend, Elizabeth Haysom.
[In 1985, a gruesome double murder rocked Virginia. Was the wrong man convicted?]
....
“We’re not going to stop, slow down or be quiet,” Grisham said. “We are just going to get more and more vocal, and push harder and harder until we get justice.”
Laura Vozzella covers Virginia politics for The Washington Post. Before joining The Post, she was a political columnist and food writer at the Baltimore Sun, and she has also worked for the Associated Press, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Hartford Courant. Follow https://twitter.com/LVozzella
For a convicted double murderer long on famous supporters, basic detective work could be key
By Laura Vozzella, Local reporter covering Virginia politics
April 21 at 6:50 PM
CHARLOTTESVILLE — The phone rings in novelist John Grisham’s office, and the best-selling novelist is eager to take the call — from a prisoner, convicted decades ago of a brutal double murder.
Jens Soering, a German diplomat’s son and former University of Virginia honors student who claims he was wrongly convicted of killing his girlfriend’s parents in 1985, has never lacked for high-profile supporters.
For years, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, actor Martin Sheen and Richmond’s Catholic bishop pushed fruitlessly for his release. Grisham is a relative newcomer to the club. So is Jason Flom, a Manhattan music industry executive and founding board member of the Innocence Project, who joined the author in his Charlottesville office for the call, which they recorded for a podcast on wrongful convictions.
Given that star power and political sway have so far failed to free Soering, his best hope may lie with a third man on hand for the podcast — a local sheriff offering old-fashioned detective work. ... Albemarle County Sheriff J.E. “Chip” Harding and a former deputy have teamed up to try to reinvestigate the case, following leads that they say officials in rural Bedford County never pursued — or dropped once Soering made what he says was a false confession to cover for his girlfriend, Elizabeth Haysom.
[In 1985, a gruesome double murder rocked Virginia. Was the wrong man convicted?]
....
“We’re not going to stop, slow down or be quiet,” Grisham said. “We are just going to get more and more vocal, and push harder and harder until we get justice.”
Laura Vozzella covers Virginia politics for The Washington Post. Before joining The Post, she was a political columnist and food writer at the Baltimore Sun, and she has also worked for the Associated Press, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Hartford Courant. Follow https://twitter.com/LVozzella
