After fourteen parole requests and numerous petitions for a gubernatorial pardon - all unsuccessful - he was released on probation and deported to Germany in 2019.
Alleging irregularities in the investigation leading to his arrest and in his trial, in the years following his conviction Söring filed a number of legal appeals and post-conviction petitions.
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".
[8] Six months after the murders, with investigators closing in on the couple, Söring and Haysom fled to England where they lived under assumed names.
[9][10][11] On 30 April 1986, Söring and Haysom were arrested for fraud after writing over $5,000 ($13,577.17 in 2023) in fake checks, using false papers, and lying to the police in London, England.
On 7 July 1989, the European Court of Human Rights agreed with this assessment and ruled in Soering v United Kingdom that extradition to countries where the accused faces the death row phenomenon is unlawful.
[15] After this decision, the authorities in Bedford County agreed not to pursue the death penalty, and Söring was extradited to the United States on 12 January 1990.
Söring pleaded not guilty, stating he made a false confession to protect Haysom, as he assumed he would have diplomatic immunity.
[26] Ed Sulzbach, an FBI profiler who according to some familiar with the case was asked to consult, concluded that the crime had been committed by a female who knew the Haysoms, settling on Elizabeth as the likely killer.
[30] An FBI agent interviewed by WVTF in 2018 dismissed the witnesses' methods as a "magic trick" and noted that Sulzbach had matched the sock to a female in his report.
[35][36] On 27 September 2017, Harding held a press conference and advocated for Söring's release together with another investigator, Richard L. Hudson Jr.
They also presented expert testimony of three forensic scientists who agreed that Söring's DNA did not match the blood found on the crime scene.
Neither received a gubernatorial pardon but were released into the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for deportation to their home countries of Canada and Germany, respectively, and remain ineligible to reenter the United States.
Instead of critically questioning criminals, the media enables the opposite through their sensational reporting: a cult of personality that can be marketed in pop culture.
In 2007, his book The Convict Christ was awarded first prize by the Catholic Press Association of North America in the category, "Social Concerns.
[53][54] Another podcast based on his case was published by Jason Flom and novelist John Grisham, Did a Fatal Attraction Lead to a Wrongful Conviction?