RICHMOND, Va. — When he was a teenager, Jens Soering confessed to committing one of Virginia's most shocking crimes. He later recanted, but says he understands why some people still question why he would ever admit to killing two people if he did not really do it.
"There's research that shows that among teenagers, the leading cause for false confession isn't police brutality, it isn't threats by the police, it isn't anything like that," said Soering. "With teenagers the leading cause for false confession is, in fact, the wish to protect somebody else, which is exactly what I did when I was 19, and when I lied to the police by giving a false confession, I was trying to protect somebody else … my girlfriend."
In spring 1985, Soering, the son of a German diplomat, was a first-year student at the University of Virginia when he and his then-girlfriend Elizabeth Haysom were accused of killing her parents at the Haysom family home in Bedford County, Virginia.
It became one of the most talked-about cases in the United States, and five years later, it became one of the first trials to ever be broadcast on television.
Soering was ultimately convicted of the murders and sentenced to life in prison. Haysom pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder before the fact and was given a 90-year sentence.
"It would have been difficult just to charge me, and they sure as heck couldn't have convicted me, if I hadn't given this false confession," said Soering. "So, it is completely my fault. And I did spend 15 years hating myself more and more and more and more and more, and I got very close to suicide."
Both Soering and Haysom were granted parole in 2019.
Soering, who now lives in Germany, joined Catie Beck on the most recent episode of "Untold – A WTVR Podcast," and spoke about the latest effort to clear his name: a petition for a writ of actual innocence before the Virginia Court of Appeals.
"I've looked at the law, I've had decades to educate myself about all of this, and I've looked at the changes in the law in 2020 because the writ of actual innocence was reformed in 2020 so that makes me hopeful," said Soering. "I've looked a little bit into Jay Jones, the new attorney general, and that makes me hopeful."
Soering's attorney, Elliott Harding, says the crux of the argument they are prepared to make before the court is that "newly discovered evidence, including both non-biological and biological, reveal that no jury would find him guilty of these crimes if the trial were held today."
"I will keep going with this, because I didn't do it, I didn't do it, and I'm not going to stop saying it," said Soering. "I'm not going to stop fighting for it. They couldn't stop me when I was in the prisons of Virginia, and I'm living a much better life now, so they're certainly not going to stop me now."
"I will keep fighting for this until I get it."
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