On Friday, he was set to head home. And today, Jens Soering, the UVA double murderer who killed his girlfriend’s parents in their Bedford home in 1985, is set to remain in the Buckingham correctional facility.
In a odd closing act before he left office, last Friday Tim Kaine requested that the Dept. of Justice transfer Soering to a German prison, where he had agreed to serve two more years. Family of his victims protested, and though Kaine couched his decision in talk of earning chips in the international community to bring back U.S. prisoners, a lot of people weren’t buying it.
Equally odd, the state correctional system has 1,440 inmates of foreign birth, with 101 of them from Germany, according to DOC spokesman Larry Traylor. Yet the transfer application applied to Soering alone.
This afternoon, Bob McDonnell, the Commonwealth’s new governor withdrew the request for transfer. He said, "I believe that as the Governor of Virginia, with custody of Jens Soering, I am responsible for ensuring that justice is done. It is imperative that Soering serve out his punishment in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Consequently, I hereby revoke Virginia’s consent to the transfer of Soering to the federal government."
Thanks to action by Gov. McDonnell today, Jens Soering can continue the 4:45 a.m.- 8:15 p.m. routine of writing, prayer, exercise and a jailhouse job that he described to C-VILLE from prison 5 years ago. He won’t be leaving Buckingham Prison any time soon, it seems, though his fate looked different last Friday.
