Hannover Legal Studies Society Removes Endorsement of Söring's Innocence

An encouraging first step.

After being contacted by me and by several other people the Hannover Legal Studies Society has removed the part of the announcement of Jens Söring’s speech about US prisons in which they proclaim him innocent. Now the announcement says that he was convicted of a crime “which, as he claims, he did not commit” (“für eine Tat, die er nach eigener Behauptung nicht begangen habe”).

Incidentally, I’d just like to thank all the people who have reached out to let me know that they also got in touch with the Society to register their concerns. I remember when I was the seemingly the only person in Germany who had a problem with Jens Söring appearing on taxpayer-funded TV shows and at taxpayer-funded institutions to air his discredited, defamatory innocence claims. This made it easy to dismiss me as a crank, or, in Söring’s preferred moniker, an “obsessed Texas blogger”. Of course, I was a crank who got three articles published in Germany’s most prestigious newspaper, but that apparently meant nothing compared to Söring’s oleaginous charm¹ and prominent connections.

Now, I’m far from alone. Dozens of people now reach out to prominent public institutions which host Söring without context or balance to register their dismay. And the old rule of newspaper editors was that for every letter to the editor the newspaper got, there were 100 people who thought the same thing but didn’t have the time or desire to write a letter about it. So dozens of people complaining means thousands of people who object to it.

Of course, as of this point, Jens Söring is still scheduled to launch his customary biased attack on the American criminal justice system — with no balance or context — inside a genuine German courtroom, likely with judges and professors in the audience. That remains, in my view, a disgraceful prospect. As time permits, I will be doing my best to convince the organizers to at least ensure that the audience hears the other side and is presented with authoritative facts to counter Söring’s exaggerated sound-bites.

Naturally, I’ll keep everyone posted right here.

1. It’s interesting how many people like Jens Söring. In fact, his personal charm is a critical key to his success: he tries to gets people to like him, and then, if he’s successful, asks them for favors. He creates a sort of bond of personal loyalty, accentuated by his supposedly “tragic” history and his perfect German upper-middle-class manners and hobbies.

This is one main reason why he keeps making new converts: He looks for people who haven’t been exposed to the truth about his claims, and then pours on the “old oil”, as P.G. Wodehouse might say. Before they know it, they’re hanging on his every word, and are prepared to endorse his innocence and let him fulminate against the femme fatale and the crooked cops who sent him away.

Then, of course, reality slaps them hard in the face.