Jens Söring, usually rendered in English as Jens Soering, (born 1 August 1966 in Bangkok, Thailand) is a German citizen who in 1990 was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in Virginia, United States of America. Söring was convicted of killing the parents of his then-girlfriend Elizabeth Haysom in the unincorporated hamlet of Boonsboro, Bedford County, Virginia with her help in March 1985. Soering (along with Haysom) fled the United States shortly after murder investigators requested he provide fingerprint, footprint, and blood samples in October 1985. Soering and Haysom were arrested in London in April 1986. His fight against extradition led to the landmark judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in Soering v United Kingdom that establishes that extradition to the United States is illegal if the accused faces the death penalty. Söring was extradited after the authorities in Bedford County gave assurances that they would not seek the death penalty. Following his arrest in 1986, Soering confessed to the murders numerous times. Despite this, at his trial in 1990 he pleaded not guilty and claimed his confessions were false. The jury was unpersuaded and he was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. Alleging irregularities in the investigation leading to his arrest and in his trial, in the years following his conviction Soering filed a number of legal appeals and post-conviction petitions. All were rejected by the courts. Prior to being granted parole in November of 2019, fourteen parole requests were denied and numerous petitions for a gubernatorial pardon were unsuccessful. His parole was granted in November 2019, with Söring being deported back to Germany and barred from entering the United States. During his incarceration, Söring converted from Buddhism to Roman Catholicism and wrote multiple books about his life in prison and his religious beliefs. His 2007 book The Convict Christ was awarded first prize by the Catholic Press Association of North America in the category, "Social Concerns".