Jens Söring

Jens Soering was a young teenaged freshman at the University of Virginia who became infatuated with Elizabeth (Liz) Haysom, another freshman. Both had lived in various countries although Elizabeth, who was two years older, was much more sophisticated than Jens. The following spring (April 1985) Liz killed both of her parents, and convinced Jens to take the blame to save her from the electric chair. The young couple flew the country and traveled through Europe and Asia. They were caught in London for using fraudulent travelers checks. Liz was the daughter of a prosperous family with ties to the area in which they were killed, Jens was the son of a German diplomat. The Virginia authorities overlooked evidence which pointed to Liz (and let her plead as being an accomplice to the crime) and tied Jens to the killings although his testimony was false and contained numerous wrong details. The first three quarters of the book is Jens' memoir of his love affair with Liz through their arrest, his trial, and briefly the efforts to get him out of prison. The last quarter of the book, by Bill Sizemore, a journalist who became interested in the case, discusses in brief chapters specific aspects of the case, pointing out the numerous things which went wrong in the investigation and trial. This includes but is not limited to Jens' confession which was improperly gotten and should not have been allowed, the questioning of Jens leading to his arrest not taking into account how his testimony conflicted with the crime scene, the judge's ties to the family of the deceased (he was a friend of the mother's brother) and his giving an unfavorable charge to the jury, and the ineffectiveness of the lead defense lawyer. Jens' crime should have been considered accomplice after the fact (since he was involved in the cover-up) which was considered a misdemeanor in Virginia and punishable with a year in prison. Mr. Sizemore described the appeals which later lawyers took to court, all the way up to the Supreme Court, which were denied. Mr. Soering has been in prison in Virginia since 1990 for two murders he did not commit; he is losing hope of being freed.

Pictures of many of the important characters appear at the front of the book. Unfortunately, the book was not have any endnotes, bibliography (other than a list of books Mr. Soering has published), or index.… (más)