Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 25, 1990                   TAG: 9005250387
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MONICA DAVEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BEDFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

SOERING OPPOSES BACKUP JURY PLAN

Several months ago, Circuit Judge William Sweeney agreed not to allow a jury from Bedford County to hear the case because of publicity about it since the deaths of Nancy and Derek Haysom in 1985.

But, in a letter entered in the Circuit Court file this week, Sweeney said he would bring in a group of Bedford County residents for the June 1 trial in case 12 jurors and two alternates cannot be selected from a group of Nelson County residents.

In their objection, Soering's attorneys, Rick Neaton and William Cleaveland, said the judge's backup plan violates their client's rights.

"Summoning jurors from Bedford County [even if only as backups to the Nelson County venire] is fundamentally inconsistent with the court's reasoning behind its ruling and order to change venire and deprives the defendant of his constitutional right to due process of law," they said in their objection.

According to Sweeney's letter, 50 Nelson County residents will come to Bedford June 1 to be questioned as potential jurors in the case.

"As a backup only," 25 Bedford County residents will be summoned June 4 to be questioned as potential jurors, Sweeney said. "We can tell them not to come if we select our panel . . . from the Nelson group," Sweeney said.

The defense objection will be heard Tuesday as part of a pretrial hearing.

Neaton and Cleaveland have also objected to the use of a Nelson County jury, saying residents of that county are exposed to newspapers and television news shows from the Bedford area.